From Luke’s text to a physical world
The adaptation began with the biblical text. Producer John Heyman handed screenwriter Barnet Fishbein the full Gospel of Luke and asked him to put its dialogue and action into scene form. The production’s scholars, researchers and religious advisers chose Luke because they regarded it as the most complete narrative Gospel, extending from the Annunciation to the Ascension. That judgment explains their choice of narrative framework.
Research then became physical objects. Heyman employed researchers and consulted archaeologists and historians, while special workshops produced replicas of first-century pottery, clothing and other artifacts. The alabaster flask used in the scene of a woman anointing Jesus’ feet was one example of the production’s attention to small details. Its appearance was a matter of deliberate reconstruction.
Costume designer Rochelle Zaltzman spent weeks in the Jerusalem Library researching clothing and armor. She searched village markets and worked with traders in Tel-Aviv’s flea market to obtain fabrics, which were then dyed and sometimes dyed again to achieve the intended shades. Zaltzman also described seeking distinctive weaves. With wardrobe mistress Etti Kanner and five helpers, she organized a tailoring effort that supplied 4,000 costumes and 2,000 hats and headdresses.
Existing settlements supplied some of the film’s city settings. Scenes representing cities Jesus visited were filmed in small Arab townships on the west bank of the River Jordan. Preparing those locations included dismantling television aerials, telegraph poles and overhead wires. Removing these modern features was a practical part of creating the screen setting; the townships served as filming locations for the reconstructed world.
Other settings required construction. With historical and archaeological advisers, workshop crews built period carts and reconstructed the Herodian Temple’s Courtyard of the Gentiles. For the temptation sequence, they made a replica of the temple pinnacle using the model of Herod’s Temple at Jerusalem’s Holyland Hotel. The model itself also appeared in wider shots. These techniques allowed constructed scenery and model photography to represent the same setting at different scales.
The fishing scenes combined specially built equipment with locally obtained fish. Set designers constructed the entire fleet of fishing boats, and local fishermen supplied fish caught in the Sea of Galilee for the miraculous-catch scene. The boats were production creations, while the fish were physical elements arranged to dramatize the account.
Heyman described his intended style as a first-century docudrama: realistic and grubby. The temple courtyard included animal dung and garbage as part of that production vision. This was his interpretation of how the setting should look. Research informed the film’s choices, while the finished costumes, props and scenery remained a dramatic reconstruction.