A.D. 2019

A few years ago I got really interested in the biblical story of St. Joseph, the father of Jesus Christ. A reliable and decent man who has to face a problem that is way beyond him. His beloved, young wife goes for a trip, then goes back and declares that she’s pregnant.

“But, you know, I didn’t cheat on you, it was angel and… it just happened. Will you believe me?”

How strong your love and faith must be to bear this kind of situation? Maybe that is exactly what love is? To believe, just like that, against all reason, against public opinion?

By the way, his name is mentioned only 14 times in the whole Bible. Also later artists (painters, writers, filmmakers) barely focused on St. Joseph. I had a feeling that he is kind of underrated character with a huge untapped potential. Also, the issues of loyalty and trust are very imporant topics nowadays. An old, classic, almost archetypal story can be a great comment to modern problems – betrayals, divorces, breakups and loneliness. I felt that I really need to retell this story, but in a modern way.

Once I decided to make this film, I had to find a symbol of God in modern days. That’s how the second topic of my short film was born – current technology, wide palette of tools delivered by Google. Smartphones operating system, maps and, of course, searching engine makes Google a representation of God in “A.D. 2019”. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place” quotation can be easily switched to “The eyes of the Google are in every place” these days. I believe that this relation between old, biblical narrative and modern technologies is a real strength of the film.

Beside these interpretations, „A.D. 2019” can be read just as a moving, emotional story of man and woman, touching some most important issues: love, loyalty, trust and responsibility. Also the visual aspect of the film is not that „impressive” – I’ve chosen more simple and classic style of cinematography to let the audience focus on the storytelling, which is full of „magic” itself. I found inspirations in The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino. Strong sources of light in the frame (inter alia smartphone screens), overexposed windows and generally soft, blurred highlights constantly appear throughout the film, reminding the audience about the existence of some kind of higher power.

The combination of mentioned elements was a real challenge for me, both as a director and a cinematographer of the film. I hope that audience will find the film thought-provoking and enjoy the game with the code of biblical references.

Jan Groblinski