Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1964 • Italy, France
Starring Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini

A biblical epic that only the Marxist dissident Pier Paolo Pasolini could make, this intensely faithful adaptation of Saint Matthew’s Gospel depicts the life and teachings of Jesus Christ (Enrique Irazoqui, a Spanish economics student and Communist activist), whose unwavering compassion for the poor and defiant condemnation of moral hypocrisy make him a perhaps unexpected embodiment of the director’s own worldview. Stunningly shot amid the timeless landscapes of southern Italy and set to a soundtrack that encompasses everything from Bach to Black spirituals, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW cuts past dogma and straight to the core of Jesus’s radical humanism.