The Agony

Description

My pitch is for a film about the innocent son of an aging gangster, who agrees to take the rap for his father's crimes so that he can live out his old age in peace. The heart of the film will focus on the son nervously awaiting the police, wondering if there's any other way for his father to go free. There isn't. The police come to arrest him, led by a former friend turned police informant.

Working in the long lineage of 'spiritual' gangster films, the film will explore duty, familial ties, and the weight of sin through a complex psychological portrait. It will also be tense, exciting, and ultimately bloody, as a shootout ensues between the son's bodyguards and the police.

Visually, the film will be drenched in bold colours and striking angles: realism mixed with expressionism to project the son's inner state of mind onto the screen.

Biblical Connection

The film is a contemporary retelling of the episode from Jesus' life known as 'The Agony in the Garden', retold in the Gospels (see, for instance, Matthew 26:36-46). It will also retell Jesus' Arrest (and therefore Judas' betrayal – Matthew 26:47-56).