In May 2006, Sony pictures will bring Dan Brown's best-seller "The Da Vinci Code" to the big screen. The novel, which sold forty million copies since its publication in 2003, has captivated readers around the world. What makes this story so attractive? Surely it's the intrigue, secrecy, and conspiracy.
But the novel challenges the very foundations of one of the world's oldest institutions, the Roman Catholic Church. Did Leonardo Da Vinci use his art to reveal secrets about the Holy Grail? Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene lovers? Is Opus Dei a secret organization with assassins as members? Is Christianity the biggest cover-up in history?
In this feature, Vatican officials, historians, and experts in art and Church history deconstruct the story that has taken popular culture by storm.
Contents: Interviews with art historian Elizabeth Lev; Italian minister Rocco Buttiglione; cardinal Francis Arinze; Church historian Peter Gumpel; Prof. Ellis, Jewish Studies; Psychiatrist Mark Palermo; the administrator of St. Sulpice Church; Muslim Leader Lily Munir; and Greek Orthodox Theologian Karkala-Zorba, among others.
Producer, Mario Biasetti; reporters, Susanna L. Pinto & Yago de la Cierva; video-photographer, Mauro Capponi; sound engineer, Dominik Cira; editor, Pilar Peiró; graphic designer, Giorgia Di Pasquale; production manager, Flavia Conidi.
Length: 25 minutes. A ROMEreports documentary, 2006.
