New Religious Thriller Focuses on the Holy Shroud
TORONTO – When the so-called “age of information” – via the Internet – was sold to humanity, few anticipated or cared to contemplate its logical consequence: the erosion of trust in institutions. With access to more information than any known civilization has had since the dawn of mankind, trust in church and state has hit record lows – justified or not. What hasn’t changed is how people have turned to art for some respite and reflection.
And who wouldn’t want some respite from the recent revelations (Epstein Files) that an apparent demonic cabal of “world leaders” might be behind history’s most abhorrent case of human trafficking? Unsurprisingly, filmmakers are returning to big picture storytelling, or movies that touch on existential themes.
Antonello Belluco’s C14 began shooting on February 23rd in Veneto, and revolves around the mystery of the Shroud of Turin. One could argue that the intense scientific scrutiny and Sisyphean debate over the legitimacy of the Holy Shroud is entertaining enough without a film. But the filmmakers have timed the production perfectly.
In July of 2025, a Brazilian artist Cicero Moraes created a 3D simulation of the shroud and claimed the purported image of Christ was likely made by a statue or “low-relief model” rather than a human body. Naturally, that didn’t land too well with the Shroud of Turin Research Project or the keepers of the cloth.
The film’s title “C14” is likely referring to the carbon-14 test or radiocarbon dating that was done to the shroud in 1988. The test which was performed by three different laboratories (Oxford, Arizona, Zurich) concluded that the linen had a medieval origin and was manufactured sometime between 1260 and 1390 AD. Their methods were refuted on some legitimate grounds.
Belluco’s film however, ditches the past for the very near and dystopian future of 2033. The plot: Two thousand years have passed since the death of Christ, and St. Peter’s Square prepares for a momentous event – the Pope’s Exposition of the Shroud of Turin.
But the discovery of a golden medallion depicting the face of Christ, identical to the face of the Man on the Shroud of Turin, threatens to shake the foundations of faith, science, and humanity as a whole.
Fans of Dan Brown’s popular novel “The Da Vinci code” might suspect that Belluco has directly lifted his formula from the author’s conspiratorial playbook. It’s certainly close to the flame, considering the main characters consist of a young researcher who steals the medallion (played by Ludovica Martino) and a University Professor (played by Raoul Bova) who’s enlisted to decipher its meaning.
Inspired by Brown’s work or not, the desperate search for truth in an ever-imploding world is becoming more apparent not by the day, but by the hour. Especially in the West, where the news can’t keep up with an American President bent on “flooding the zone”.
Image of C14 Cast courtesy of Claudio Mainardi regrets
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
