God Exists. He Lives in Brussels with his daughter.
Overview
God lives in Brussels. On Earth though, God is a coward, morally pathetic and odious to his family. His daughter, Ea, is bored at home and can't stand being locked up in a small apartment in ordinary Brussels, until the day she decides to revolt against her dad...
Ratings
Curator score: 6.1/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 70
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Jaco Van Dormael
Production
Caviar, Climax Films, VOO, Orange Studio, Bac Cinema, Terra Incognita Films
Cast
Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Yolande Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Serge Larivière, Didier De Neck, Laura Verlinden, Romain Gelin, Marco Lorenzini, Johan Heldenbergh, Anna Tenta, David Murgia, Gaspard Pauwels, Bilal Aya, Johan Leysen, Dominique Abel, Lola Pauwels, Sandrine Laroche, Louis Durant
Where to watch
fuboTV, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, mischievous fantasy satire that turns theology into deadpan social comedy. Its blend of blasphemy, whimsy, and melancholy is distinctive enough to stand out, even when the execution gets uneven.
Best for
Viewers who like irreverent European comedies
Fans of high-concept fantasy with a satirical edge
People open to absurdist, deadpan humor
Audiences who enjoy bittersweet, visually playful storytelling
Skip if
You want a reverent or faith-affirming treatment of religion
You dislike tonal shifts between silly and sentimental
You need tightly plotted comedy with constant punchlines
Blasphemous or anti-clerical humor puts you off
Overview
The Brand New Testament is a wonderfully odd premise played with a straight face: God is a petty, miserable Brussels apartment-dweller, and his daughter decides to sabotage his cosmic order. That setup gives Jaco Van Dormael room for satire, but also for a surprising amount of tenderness about loneliness, freedom, and the need to rewrite the rules handed down by authority.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the film’s tone. It’s playful without being merely cute, and cruel without becoming mean-spirited. The visual imagination is often the joke, but the movie also lands on a sincere emotional note when it follows Ea into the world and lets ordinary people become the source of wonder.
Bottom line
It’s not perfectly balanced, and some viewers may find the humor too whimsical or the structure a little loose. But as a piece of European fantasy comedy with real personality, it’s memorable, provocative, and much smarter than its outrageous premise might suggest.
Top Letterboxd reviews
matt lynch (3★) · 226 likes
Catherine Deneuve leaves her husband for a gorilla and God winds up on a washing-machine assembly line in Uzbekistan. Fun movie.
charlie chayyim (4★) · 166 likes
this film has eleven year old trans lesbian @all other movies: wyd???
seymour🪱 (4★) · 98 likes
honestly rude of her to make him write the new testament but not even offer that he could be one of the apostles
russman (3.5★) · 92 likes
I now know how many movies I can log before I die
Jason Coffman (4.5★) · 89 likes
God, as it happens, is real and lives in Brussels in an apartment building from which he created the world. He’s also a total asshole, inflicting nearly as much misery on his wife and young daughter Ea as he does on humanity on a daily basis. Ea finally decides to escape like her older brother JC. But first she uses her dad’s computer to tell everyone on Earth when they’re going to die, which ruins his entire system. Ea recruits… more God, as it happens, is real and lives in Brussels in an apartment building from which he created the world. He’s also a total asshole, inflicting nearly as much misery on his wife and young daughter Ea as he does on humanity on a daily basis. Ea finally decides to escape like her older brother JC. But first she uses her dad’s computer to tell everyone on Earth when they’re going to die, which ruins his entire system. Ea recruits… more
1979 · Comedy · 1h 34m · R · Curator 8.2/10 (811.1K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
The benchmark for smart, subversive religious comedy that skewers institutions while keeping a playful tone.