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The Miracle Maker (1999)
Director: Derek Hayes, Stanislav Sokolov
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
From the company behind the successful animated TV Shakespeare, Chaucer and Old Testament series, this is an animated life of Christ (voiced by Fiennes), according to Luke, but told mainly from the point of view of Tamar, a sick 12-year-old Pharisee (Callard). On a trip to the doctor in Sepphoris, she witnesses the saving of Mary Magdalen and then follows the journey to the Crucifixion. A Welsh/Russian co-production, most of its 3-D animated, clay headed 'puppets' came from the Moscow team, while the pastel-crayon 'miracles' and flashbacks are from the Cartwn Cymru studio. The films eschews CGI techniques, producing an almost homely, handcrafted feel. The screenplay is a combination of simplicity and detail, its plenitude of characters and groupings doing justice to the religious, racial and social context. Christ is much the modest artisan carpenter, an Everyman lacking the dynamism and wrath of, say, Pasolini's Evangelist. Here, miracles are made manifest by dozens of minuscule rubber fish and everyone moves with the underwater slowness of entranced T'ai-chi practitioners. Strange - and strangely compelling.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Derek Hayes, Stanislav Sokolov
Producer: Naomi Jones, Renat Zinnurov
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Michael Bryant, Julie Christie, Rebecca Callard, James Frain, Richard E Grant, Ian Holm, William Hurt, Anton Lesser, Daniel Massey, Tim McInnerny, Alfred Molina, Bob Peck, Miranda Richardson, Antony Sher, Ewan Stewart, Ken Stott, David Thewlis full cast
Duration: 91 mins
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