The Body (2001 film)

The Body
DVD cover
Directed by	Jonas McCord
Written by	Jonas McCord
Based on	The Body by Richard Sapir
Produced by	Rudy Cohen
Starring	Antonio Banderas Olivia Williams Jason Flemyng John Shrapnel Lillian Lux John Wood Derek Jacobi
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by	Alain Jakubowicz Lesley Walker
Music by	Serge Colbert
Production companies	Avalanche Films Helkon Media AG MDP Worldwide
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date	April 20, 2001 (2001-04-20)
Running time	109 minutes
Countries	United States Israel Germany
Language	English
Box office	$36,845

The Body is a 2001 mystery thriller drama film written and directed by Jonas McCord. Based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Richard Sapir, it stars Antonio Banderas, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Lillian Lux, John Wood, and Derek Jacobi. It is a joint American-Israeli-German co-production, shot on-location in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Italy.

The plot follows Father Matt Gutierrez (Banderas), a Jesuit priest sent by the Vatican to investigate an archaeologic finding by Dr. Sharon Golban (Williams) which is suspected to be the remains of the body of Jesus Christ. This finding puts Gutierrez's faith and his doubts in constant confrontation with Golban's scientific views, and stirs political tensions between Palestine and Israel, while also shaking the foundations of Christianity itself.

The film was released on April 20, 2001, by TriStar Pictures and received mixed critical reviews.^[1][2]