I begyndelsen var ideen

The film is based on the play "The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus" by Danish avant-garde theatre group Odin Teatret, performed from 1985 to 1987. "The Gospel According to Oxyrhincus" is the portrayal of the revolts buried alive, matching the story of Antigone and her brother Polynices, with the character of Zusha Mal'ak - a Jew who is searching for the Messiah and comes upon a society which has already found its Messiah - and the utopian revolutions which ended in blood. The performance is in Coptic and Old Greek, two dead languages that nobody understands any longer.