New Jesus film through the eyes of a Muslim director

NO DIFFERENCE: Talebzadeh hopes The Messiah can forge common ground between Muslims and Christians.

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Tehran (Iran): For Christians, the crucifixion of Christ is an event at the heart of their faith.

And it is depicted in a new film, titled the messiah, produced in of all places of the Islamic republic of Iran.

The reason may surprise many----Muslims consider Jesus Christ one of the great prophets.

Nader Talebzadeh wrote, produced and directed the film The Messiah hoping the shared story of Jesus can forge common ground between Muslims and Christians as much of the film depicts scenes described in both the Bible and the Koran.

But in the Islamic version there are two huge differences.

“He is not the son of God and was never the son of God. He is a prophet and he was not crucified, that somebody was crucified in his stead,” says Talebzadeh.

While the Koran doesn't explicitly say who was crucified in his place, Talebzadeh interprets the wording to mean Judas, who in the film is transformed to appear like Jesus before being executed.

And despite the differences, the goal is to show the significance of Jesus in both faiths.

“When you show this information to the common people, they don't know. Ninety per cent of the Muslims in Iran don’t know about this,” says Talebzadeh.

And there is one more audience he hopes to reach---Muslim extremists who kill in the name of Islam and believe all other faiths are blasphemous.

The film, already released in Iran, will soon hit the Internet and Talebzadeh hopes that Christians worldwide will have a chance to see one of the world's oldest stories told through the eyes of a Muslim filmmaker.