The first film of the Motovun film festival yesterday evening was not to be missed. It was “The Brand New Testament” (2015), which was directed and produced by Jaco Van Dormael from Belgium. A light comedy about the nasty grump on high, his docile and inarticulate albeit divine wife, and two rebellious but maladroit children, it was a joy to watch. And forget a few minutes after the projection. God has become light entertainment as of late. The lower-middle-class setting of Dormael’s movie is yet another blow for the crestfallen Christian faith. As well as faith in general. The curmudgeonly Old Testament is as ludicrous as the saccharine New Testament, but the Brand New Testament is no more than an infantile burlesque. The morning after, I realize that this is indeed the best description of the so-called western civilization as it has come to pass. Infantile burlesque, indeed. And yet, I am pretty sure that this was not Dormael’s intention with his last movie. Just like the bulk of the Motovun film festival luminaries, he would see himself as a scion of the vaunted high culture, which could not but thus betray its lower middle class foundations. And infantile burlesque is destined never to catch its own tail while turning more and more infantile as it disintegrates in fits and starts.