There’s not a trailer or even much of a synopsis for Rodrigo Garcia’s Last Days in the Desert, a small, intimate film about Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, but there is a picture of Ewan McGregor as Jesus himself. The film, which will release in April, has not had the sort of Hollywood build-up that accompanied Noah and Exodus, because it’s a very different film; smaller in scope and, obviously, more speculative in nature. Like those movies, however, race will be problematic.
McGregor is a white man playing a Middle Eastern man (he’ll also play Satan—the Bible does not have any details on Satan’s racial profile), so better luck next time, anyone concerned with racial accuracy in biblical films. That said, the few people who have seen an early cut of the film have been impressed and Garcia (son of famed Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez) has a promising resume. It’s something to keep an eye on …
