Press and awards
Notices and honours
Awards
Two BAFTA Cymru wins
At the 2013 British Academy Cymru Awards, Michael Sheen won Actor for the Teacher, and the film’s sound team won Sound. BAFTA’s list of 2013 winners. Dave McKean’s biography credits the sound win to sound designer Ian Sands.
- BAFTA Cymru 2013 Actor Michael Sheen Winner
- BAFTA Cymru 2013 Sound The Gospel of Us Sound Team Winner
Reviews
The critics
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“a masterclass in imaginative film editing and the product of an endlessly inventive esoteric mind”
The Arts Desk Read the review (The Arts Desk, opens in a new tab) -
“At its heart is a very human story.”
The Arts Desk Read the review (The Arts Desk, opens in a new tab) -
“a bold attempt to turn it into something more cinematic”
The Guardian Read the review (The Guardian, opens in a new tab) -
“Sheen is clearly in a league of his own”
Cine-Vue Read the review (Cine-Vue, opens in a new tab) -
“There is a raw, primitive response to Christ in this film, despite all its community theatre window-dressing.”
Financial Times Excerpt as published on Rotten Tomatoes. The FT original is behind a paywall. See the excerpt (Financial Times, opens in a new tab) -
“Though the film resolves little, it illuminates a lot.”
The Wee Review Read the review (The Wee Review, opens in a new tab) -
“…an astonishing creation, a piece of street theatre of transcendental power.”
The Arts Desk Read the review in The Arts Desk (opens in a new tab) -
“…like watching a town discovering its voice through a shared act of creation.”
The Guardian Read the review in The Guardian (opens in a new tab)
Quotations are given exactly as published and link to the full reviews, which are worth reading whole. Reviews were mixed as well as warm: Wikipedia and the review aggregators carry the wider picture.
Release
Premiere and screenings
- Easter Sunday, 8 April 2012 World premiere Apollo Cinema, Port Talbot, on all six screens Source: BBC News
- 13 April 2012 UK cinema release Soda Pictures Source: BBC News
- 4 June 2012 Hay Festival screening Bookshop Cinema, Hay-on-Wye Source: Hay Festival
- In competition Marbella International Film Festival Spain Source: EastWest Filmdistribution
Press notes
In brief
The Gospel of Us (2012, 115 minutes, UK) is Dave McKean’s film of The Passion, the three-day Easter play that Michael Sheen co-directed and starred in across Port Talbot in April 2011, made by National Theatre Wales with WildWorks and written by Owen Sheers. Sheen plays the Teacher. More than a thousand people of the town took part.
Produced by Eryl Huw Phillips for Rondo Media, with National Theatre Wales as co-producer. Executive producers Keith Potter, Francis Hellyer and Lucy Davies. Released in UK cinemas by Soda Pictures on 13 April 2012, and on DVD later that year.
Dave McKean has talked at length about making the film. His interviews and other writing on the film and the play are collected on the film page.
For stills, the poster and screening enquiries, please contact the production company, Rondo Media. This site does not reproduce the film’s stills or poster.