Genesis: The Creation and the Flood

In 1994, Italian director Ermanno Olmi made a television film shot in Morocco, titled Genesis: The Creation and the Flood (also released in Australia as The Bible: Genesis). The movie draws from the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew Bible’s first book, and depicts the world’s creation and the Great Flood. Its cast consists of native Bedouins, and the text of Genesis is delivered by a narrator who sometimes appears as an elderly desert nomad recounting the story to his extended Bedouin family.

The plot begins with the planet’s creation, told by an old desert shepherd to his young, curious grandson. The old man also describes Adam and Eve, their temptation by a snake, their transgression, and their permanent expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The story then covers humanity’s first crime: Cain murdering his brother Abel. The genealogies of Cain and Seth are included.

Because mankind’s corruption becomes great on Earth, God regrets making humans, but finds a righteous man named Noah. Noah and his family obediently build an ark to protect themselves and the animals from a flood that will wash away wickedness. These events are narrated in the clear, simple words of an old nomad shepherd.

To illustrate some Old Testament pronouncements about human evils, the film uses modern clips of warfare and destruction. The script follows the first nine chapters of Genesis fairly accurately, with a few added portions, such as excerpts from the Song of Songs, Leviticus 26, and Psalm 50.

The cast includes Omero Antonutti (voiced in English by Paul Scofield) as the old narrator and Noah, Sabir Aziz as Adam, Haddou Zoubida as Eve, Annabi Abdelialil as Cain, and B. Haddan Mohammed as Abel.