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A Kid Who Just Wanted To Make Movies and My Aha Moment in SCHIZOPOLIS (Part I) by Darrin Dickerson

RESURRECTION

Thessaloníki, Greece

Development

Resurrection evolves around the myth of the Immortal Wanderer, Kartafilos, the Roman Legionnaire who has hit and cursed Jesus Christ on His way to Golgotha. Kartafilos’ action had as a result his eternal punishment: to wander around through the ages, being immortal physically, but not being able to find the redemption for his soul. We observe the life of Kartafilos, in past and present, while he struggles for his salvation.

In his way he meets key historical figures: Some want to help him – like Apostle Paul himself or Helen (the mother of Byzantine Emperor Constantine), and others want to harm him and use him in order to gain glory themselves on the Day of the Reckoning (The Crusaders, the Templar Knights). Kartafilos, being himself the attaché of Pontius Pilatus, observes at first hand the facts that led to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, facts whose true meaning Kartafilos will be able to grasp only much later on. The curse that follows the Legionnaire becomes heavier and heavier as time goes by, as he condemns himself for mistreating the Messiah.

The part of the story where we focus on is the way Kartafilos moves through the streets of the modern city of Thessaloniki, in the year 2000, and the ruthless hunt of his against time. Through a series of references to his past, his role in History is illuminated, until the breathtaking finale, which uncovers, apart from the face of Messiah Himself, the true meaning of immortality, of resurrection, and of the salvation of one’s soul.

Parallel to Kartafilos’ story, we observe the miracles performed by the Messiah, who wanders as well in the streets of Thessaloniki (“The New Jerusalem” according to the Jewish tradition), but he remains disguised. Much later on, we realize that the miracle-maker has donned the bearded face, the long hair, and the clothes of a young man that could resemble a rock musician, so that he can remain unnoticed and in order to reveal his true face in due course.

The film starts when Kartafilos is found bleeding in a country road in the outskirts of Thessaloniki, the morning of Good Friday in the year 2012. He is wounded due to a car-crash. Irene, a doctor, stops to help him and takes care of him. She means to support him, but Kartafilos runs away the same night, in order to seek help from a famous writer, George Theofilou, who has written about the myth of the Immortal Wanderer in his latest book.

Their meeting is not successful. None of them trusts the other. Nevertheless, the meeting with Theofilou sets a series of events in motion. Theofilou, having the coins that Kartafilos leaves behind (three coins of the Pilatus Era) seeks his contacts, in Mount Athos, and elsewhere, that could confirm whether this is the true Identity of the Immortal Wanderer.

At the same time, the Templar Knights are on Kartafilos’ track. The Legionnaire wanders through the streets of Thessaloniki alone and crushed, going from church to church, from Good Friday’s night to the night of the Great Sabbath.

He finally turns back to Irene, whose house is being watched. She tries to hide Kartafilos, by organizing an impressive getaway, using a disguised ambulance. They flee from one house to another, with her friends’ help, but she can’t find a safe place for herself to hide.

She is arrested by the Templar Knights, on the same night, the night of the Great Sabbath, just outside her father’s house, who is a priest. Father John has managed to encourage her, but he couldn’t find a solution in Kartafilos’ problem. The Templar Knights, having Irene in their hands, threaten Kartafilos to surrender.

Kartafilos surrenders without any resistance. There follow the facts that surround the Judgment Day, which is Easter Sunday: Kartafilos is murdered by the Templar Knights, Irene is saved, the Templar Knights are arrested, and it is reveled that their leader was Theofilou himself. Finally, the salvation of Kartafilos comes, in an impressive pool of light.

Parallel to these, Jesus Christ himself appears, as a “stray” youth, in one of the city’s churches, where the Father of Irene celebrates mass. Father John is the one who gives Jesus the Holy Communion, and leads to his “enlightenment”. However, the father is hesitant to make this historical move. But Jesus gives immunity to all, with the famous phrase “no one is sinless” and he yells, in the final frame “I am the Resurrection and the Life”.

This is a moment of greatness that is hard to describe; the church that surrounds them, the walls and the icons in it, they all symbolically dissolve in the eternal light, that brings a new beginning for humanity, on a new earth, where no being is lost, but everything that surrounds us remains unspoiled – by simply transcending from their material nature, to their spiritual one, and the fulfillment of their godly nature.