To the Ends of the Earth

Drawn largely from the New Testament’s "Acts of the Apostles," director David Batty’s narrative drama focuses on a key chapter in Paul the Apostle’s (played by Aki Avni) missionary work, set 18 years after his storied conversion to Christianity. The film begins with that pivotal experience when Paul sees the risen Jesus, a scene nicely crafted as jumbled fragments of visions. Jumping well ahead in time to a middle-aged Paul’s ministry, viewers see him in a desert, diverted from his next preaching destination because of a dream imploring him to head toward Philippi, in Macedonia. Once there, he finds a number of people who, despite Roman occupation, are ready to be baptized. Many more events described in "Acts" are well dramatized here, including a scene featuring a demonically possessed soothsayer girl and one capturing the famous collapse of the walls of Philippi’s prison, where Paul was jailed. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)