An angel falling from heaven to hell unexpectedly lands in a Mexican village where his presence affects the villagers in surprising ways. Lucifer is a mesmerizing, moving, and unique experiment in form, presented in the director’s original format, Tondoscope.

Maverick director Gust Van Den Berghe presents the final installment in his religious-themed trilogy (Little Baby Jesus of Flandr and Blue Bird) Lucifer, based on the work of Dutch writer Joost van den Vondel by the same name. In Berghe’s rendition of this classic, which is said to be the inspiration for John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Lucifer is not the devil, yet. He is the first being to possess knowledge of good and evil: as he imparts his wisdom on the villagers, he too imparts consciousness and free will, and as a result, most damning of all sin.

The Flemish director extended his interpretation of religious ideology through his cinematography, shooting through a lens created for this film that allows it to be projected in a circular format. Lucifer not only invites us into a captivating experience of cinema, but delivers a moving vignette of the human condition.

—Frédéric Boyer

Directed by

Gust Van den Berghe