LFF 2016 | #4
A print of Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac hangs on the royal blue walls of a teenage boy’s bedroom in Eugene Green’s The Son of Joseph. In the film, Vincent, the aforementioned teenager, tries to find his long-absent father, a man he has has never met and who his mother refuses to discuss. At various points, Green isolates specific characters in the painting in close-up as Vincent sits in his room: Isaac, the innocent victim; Abraham, the unquestioning servant of God; an angel, the divine intervention; and a ram, the replacement sacrifice. The progression of The Son of Joseph echoes the narrative of this story; Green ties it all to the painting.