The Discovery of Heaven

The Discovery of Heaven (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Catalonian International Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
128 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2001 and produced in:
Netherlands ( France, Benelux )
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Jeroen Krabbe

Written By:
Harry Mulisch (novel)
Edwin de Vries

Actors:
Stephen Fry ..... Onno
Greg Wise ..... Max
Flora Montgomery ..... Ada
Sean Harris ..... Bart Bork
Geraldine Alexander ..... Trees Quist
Rodney Baddell ..... Police Officer
Gillian Barge ..... Onno's mother
Timothy Bateson ..... Mr. Keller
Nettie Blanken ..... Coba
Daniël Boissevain ..... Junk
Victoria Carling ..... Margareth Quist
Nicholas Farrell ..... Mr. Quist
Emma Fielding ..... Helga
John Franklyn-Robbins ..... Onno's father
Stella Gonet ..... Trees
Jeroen Krabbe ..... Gabriel
Harry Landis ..... Ibrahim
Alex Lowe ..... Police Officer
Gidi Markuszower ..... Israe.li TV presenter
Rob van de Meeberg ..... Oswald Brons
Clive Merrison ..... Theo Kern
Neil Newbon ..... Quinten (16 years)
Nicholas Palliser ..... Diederik Quist
Dimitris Philippou ..... Quinten (5 years)
Diana Quick ..... Sophia
Marjolein Sligte ..... Selma Kern
Hans van Beenen ..... Student
Monique van de Ven ..... Nurse
Ellen Vogel ..... Mother of Max
Viv Weatherall ..... Angel
Heather Weeks ..... Student
Sarah Winman ..... Ankie

Synopsis:

God wants the original Ten Commandments back. But no Angel is allowed to travel to earth to get them. The Angels have to 'create' a human being smart enough to find the Stone Tablets, and willing to sacrifice his or her life in order to return the Tablets to Heaven. The Angels design an ingenious and at the same time merciless plan to achieve their goal. The plan shapes up when two men on earth meet each other apparently by coincidence. One is Onno Quist (Stephen Fry), an eccentric linguist and son of a former Prime Minister. The other is Max Delius (Greg Wise), son of a Nazi father and a Jewish mother. The two men become friends. Only one person can intrude into the intimacy of their friendship: Ada Brons (Flora Montgomery), a young cello player. Ada becomes pregnant. She doesn't know whether Max or Onno is the father. The boy born, Quinten, rapidly develops as a very special and very gifted child. Is he the chosen one? Will he be capable to complete the Angels task?

God has finally given up on humanity and has decided to break His covenant with them. In order to do that, the Ten Commandments must be returned to Heaven. A young Angel (Viv Weatherall) is assigned to carry out this task. However, the Angel can't just go to earth and pick them up. He needs a human intermediary, who is capable of finding the Testimonial and willing to bring it back. The young Angel instigates World War One and Two, the Cuban Crisis and the Vietnam war in order for the right people to meet, fall in love, and have children, who will in turn meet the right mates for them to have a child, and so on. All in order to ultimately create the chosen one. By the mid sixties the Angel has almost reached his goal. Two men, Onno Quist (Stephen Fry) and Max Delius (Greg Wise), meet; they believe by chance but of course it is the work of the Angel. They become best friends who spend all their free time together, until they encounter, by chance they believe, a beautiful young woman, Ada Brons (Flora Montgomery). At first she is shy and innocent, putting all her passion and imagination into playing her cello. But Max charms her into her first affair and she moves in with him. As Max comes to realize he loves her, he clumsily offends her and she turns to his best friend, Onno, to eventually move in with him. Invited to Cuba to perform on her cello, Ada uses the trip as an opportunity to bring the two friends together again. Max and Onno join her there, and unbeknownst to each other, each man makes love to her on the same moonlit night, within hours of each other. A few weeks later, she discovers she's pregnant. Onno assumes he's the father, Max fears that he might be and confronts Ada about the possibility, insisting she has an abortion. She's too full of joy at the prospect of having a child, and doesn't care who the father is. In her seventh month, Ada is the victim of what appears to be a freak car accident. She ends up in a coma, the child taken from her by a Cesarean section. It's a boy, whom Onno names Quinten. In despair at the loss of his wife, and feeling inadequate to the challenge of raising a child, Onno is relieved when Max volunteers to rear the boy with the help of Ada's mother (Diana Quick). Quinten (Neil Newbon) develops into a brilliant but solitary child, who hardly ever interacts with other children. He longs to live with the man he believes is his father, Onno, who meanwhile has become an important politician. When Quinten turns sixteen, he leaves his home with Max, against Max's wishes, to go live with Onno. But fate intervenes once more, and Onno's fiancée (Emma Fielding) is murdered before Quinten's eyes. A broken man now, Onno gives up his career and breaks all ties with everyone, including the boy he believes is his son. No one knows where he has gone, and Onno never tries to contact them. After a year, Quinten sets out to find him, though he has no idea where to start.

Quinten's trip takes him to Rome. As fate would have it, and does, Onno is in Rome as well. The two meet and are happily reunited. Quinten feels, however, that he's not only in Rome to find his father, but for another purpose as well, one he believes is being revealed to him by the architecture and art, the monuments and historical sites, the very stones of the eternal city itself. Ultimately Quinten claims he knows that the two stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments for Moses, are not lost as legend has it, but remain hidden right there, in Rome. Together with Onno they break into a holy site and in the dark of night recover the Testimonial. Possessing the ultimate relic of Christianity is fraught with more danger than having the most powerful human weapon of destruction. Quinten and Onno fortuitously escape to Israel, where Quinten feels he must return the Tablets to their original place in The Golden Dome of Jerusalem. Onno makes every effort to stop him, sensing that the boy's endeavor will lead to serious and irreversible consequences. Onno almost succeeds in keeping Quinten from returning the tables, until the Angels interfere one more time...

God is disappointed with the human race and wants his stone tablets back. An angel is given the assignment and, with Gabriëls help, tries to manipulate several humans on earth to get his job done. But humans have a will of their own...

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 08 September, 2009.

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