Testament: The Story of Moses It is what Netflix calls a “docudrama”, that is, a hybrid series with a documentary script that tells the story of Moisés (Avi Azulay). Producers Emre Sahin and Kelly McPherson, as well as director Benjamin Ross, use expert interviews and extensive written reenactments to tell the story of the prophet who led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.
TESTAMENT: THE STORY OF MOSES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: After a disclaimer stating that the contributions of the people interviewed for Testament: The Story of Moses They are there to help the narrative, but they do not reach a consensus, we see a man looking at a mountain. “The Bible tells of a lonely shepherd called to a mysterious mountain,” says narrator Charles Dance (game of Thrones).
The essence: The three episodes follow the story in the order you might think: the first episode deals with Moses being thrown into the Nile by his mother when Pharaoh ordered the death of all Israelite baby boys; He was recovered from the river and adopted by one of the pharaoh’s daughters. He grew up a prince, but knew he was different, and after murdering an Egyptian taskmaster for whipping an Israelite, he set out into the desert to escape capture.
He finds an oasis in the town of Midian and gains the trust of its leader, Jethro (Oberon KA Adjepong). He eventually marries his daughter Zipporah (Dominique Tipper) and settles into the life of a humble shepherd. But he constantly sees light coming from Mount Sinai and a voice saying, “Show them the way.”
Finally, he tells Zipporah that she has to find out what that voice is. He turns out to be God (Clarke Peters), or at least the one the Hebrews believe is the only god. Through a bush that burns but is not consumed, God tells Moses about his origins and that he must return to Egypt and lead the Hebrews out of slavery. When Moses expresses a lack of confidence in being able to do so, God tells him to find his brother Aaron (Ishai Golan).
The second episode deals with Moses’ confrontation with the new Pharaoh (Mehmet Kurtulus), who is the brother of the woman who adopted him, telling him to “let my people go”, and the ten plagues that the Pharaoh inflicted on the Hebrews. . The third episode deals with the Exodus, including when Moses parted the Red Sea and when Moses received the Ten Commandments.
What shows will it remind you of? Of course, the movie The ten Commandments comes to mind, but the “docudrama” format of Will it remind us queen cleopatra and Alexander: the creation of a god.
Our opinion: In most of these hybrid docudramas, the talking head part kills the narrative drive of the script part or it seems like the talking head could be removed immediately since it contributes very little to the production. In Testament: The Story of Moses, it seems that a good balance has been achieved. It could be because the producers and Ross tried to focus on the part of Moses’ story that took place in the years just before he discovered he was the prophet he became, with flashbacks to scenes of Moses growing up as Egyptian royalty that I never felt like I belonged.
The scenes feel like part of a continuous narrative, rather than vignettes, which is rare to see in this format, and since the interviewees the producers speak to are of various denominations, we get a very complete picture of why the story of Moses and the Exodus is so universal and revered.
Azulay interprets Moisés as the imperfect man he knows he is; He has murdered someone and hid his true identity from his wife and children during his years in Midian. Even when God asks him to help free the Hebrews from Egypt, he has many doubts that he is capable of doing it and makes sure to have the help of his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam (Reymonde Amsellem). . In other words, he’s not the grumpy, confident Moses that Charlton Heston’s version of him became. The ten Commandments; He is a human being who often feels overwhelmed by the responsibility assigned to him.
Because the story of the Exodus is so widely known, there will be no surprises in this story. But the nuances presented by both the experts and the scripted endings of this series will certainly bring the story into a slightly more modern context.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: The princess who adopted Moses says: “My son has returned. He is Moses.”
Sleeping star: We don’t know about you, but if Clarke Peters’ voice came out of a burning bush, we’d definitely hear it. It’s the most authoritative sounding voice of God and it’s not called Morgan Freeman.
Most pilot line: One of the experts mentions the name God gives Moses to show the Hebrews that he is the messenger of Yaweh, and says: “What kind of name is that? It’s a verb. “God is a verb.”
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Testament: The Story of Moses is one of the best “docudrama” series we’ve seen since this hybrid style of series became fashionable, mainly due to the strong acting, coherent storytelling, and expert interviews that add to the narrative instead of interrupting it. .
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
