La vie de Jésus (English: The Life of Jesus) is a 1997 feature film directed by director Bruno Dumont in his debut.
[1] Set in the town of Bailleul, the film casts a bleak look at the life of an unemployed teenager with learning difficulties who descends into rape and murder.
Freddy is an unemployed epileptic youth, living with his mother who runs a little bar and sleeping when he can with his girlfriend Marie, who works in a supermarket.
Lisa Nesselson of Variety wrote "An uncompromising portrait of thwarted emotions and small-town tedium, "The Life of Jesus" is a luminous and disconcerting feature debut from scripter-helmer Bruno Dumont.
Pic's deliberate pace, as it details the actions of adolescents with stifled inner lives, poses a commercial obstacle in markets unfriendly to leisurely fare, but film holds definite rewards for patient viewers and fest auds.