The Return

About the film

The world is about to go under. Jesus is sent down to save the world. He lands in Paris, on the Champs-Elysées, and quickly discovers that Paris is better than Paradise. He is seduced and discovers that Earth is a magnificent place. He falls in love with the terrorist girl, Marianne, who seduces him. They flee, get caught, and the world discovers his true identity. Jesus returns to Paradise with his new lover. Few films have encountered as much resistance as Jens Jørgen Thorsen's Jesus film. The film received funding in 1973 from the Danish Film Institute, but already from the beginning, it was met with accusations of blasphemy and a breach of copyright (the Bible!). The resistance culminated in 1975, when ca. 5000 people took to the streets of Copenhagen, in protest against the film. The massive public outcry resulted in the production being stopped but, in 1989, it once again received support from the Film Institute, and was completed in 1992. Thorsen's film was not censured by any government authority, but it was subject to an extreme form of censorship of the masses.