Bible and Film:An International and Intercultural Exploration

Bible and Film: An International and Intercultural Exploration
Melody D. Knowles
(with Ian N. Mills)

Wiley
226 pages - Paperback
Published 2nd April 2026 
ISBN: 978-1394350315

I was asked to endorse this new book on Bible films and I have done so very happily, as it's well worth getting. I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on it as it is the book's publication day today.

Firstly, here's the blurb I wrote that is excerpted on the back cover

With its important emphasis on films from around the globe, Melody Knowles’s “Bible and Film” is a really valuable addition to the ongoing discussion about cinema and Bible. The inclusion of international productions from well outside the Hollywood bubble should hopefully stimulate far wider discussion.

What is the book about?

As the title suggests Knowles is particularly interested in comparisons of how the Bible is adapted within different cultures. So, after an initial introduction to the subject (including "Interculturality and the Bible") each chapter then tackles a key story/group of stories from the Bible and focuses on three key films for each. The three films vary in their historic era and/or cultural backgrounds, so, for example, eight of the eighteen films focussed on here are from outside the United States. 

The six chapters cover Genesis (particularly Noah); Exodus/Moses; the David narratives; politics in Jesus's ministry; the crucifixion in musicals / comedy (written by guest author Ian Mills); and, lastly, examining Jesus traditions in the light of Jesus films. Chapters end with discussion questions and there's a glossary of cinematic terms, which pairs nicely with the practical section in the introduction offering tips for screening Jesus films from different contexts.   

What's good about this book?

Awareness of biblical films from outside Hollywood has grown substantially over this century, but even so it's great to see a book that not only celebrates and appreciates that, but makes it a fundamental part of its discussion. It brings in some Bible films that have only rarely, if ever, been discussed. For example, even I haven't seen Dornford-May's Unogombe Noye's Fludde (2013), and Milo Rau's Das neue Evangelium – from which the the book takes it's striking front cover – was only released in 2020. Some of these films take a breathtakingly fresh approach to their texts and it's great to see a fuller discussion of those.

The three-films-per-chapter structure works really well. It enables the reader to get a good feel for each movie (even if they haven't seen them, or been able to) and still allow enough time to dwell in the comparisons between them, which is the beating heart of this book. Placing Karunamayadu (1978) and Jesus of Montreal (1989) in trialogue with Pasolini's Il vangelo second Matteo (1964), for example, made me consider the political angles to those films in a way that I have never really considered. Knowles is not just saying 'hey these films are different' but actually getting to the heart of what they are about in their own cultural contexts. 

Similarly, I appreciated her not only approaching the David story from the gender angle (continuing the work of Cheryl Exum) but introducing Rei Davi into that discussion to update it. (I was disappointed not to be able to watch more of this series when I wrote about David films a decade or so ago). 

In addition to the main flow of the writing, Knowles includes a number of sidebars in boxes, which I think helps break-up the text in a way that is useful for those not used to reading long academic titles, or who like to read in short-bursts (guilty as charged....). These enable her to niftily add this useful extra information without spoiling the flow of the overall article and cover a diverse range of subjects from interpretative issues with biblical films (p.28-9) to explaining J-cuts and L-cuts (p.241) 

Any other thoughts?

I really admire the way Knowles, recognising the limits of her own "capacity as someone who focuses primarily on the Hebrew Bible", brought in Ian N. Mills to write an extra chapter (p.4). It's that kind of commitment to making the book the best it can that goes a good way to explaining why the book works so well.

Overall?

As said above, this is another valuable book on the Bible and Film and while it's aimed at an audience who is more at home in theology rather than film studies, Knowles works hard to make sure the cinematic elements are a fundamental part of the discussion. The helpful 'explainers' will mean it works well as an introductory text for those with little experience, but there's plenty of food for thought for those of use who are a little more well-versed in the field.

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→ If you're interested in other books on the subject you can read my other reviews.

→ Or you can find out about the books I have written and contributed to.