Constantine’s Sword

Asia Pacific Premiere

Constantine’s Sword is Academy Award nominated director Oren Jacoby’s adaptation of award-winning author and journalist James Carroll’s best-seller. The film chronicles the personal journey of Carroll, a former Catholic priest, as he confronts his past and uncovers the roots of religiously inspired violence and war.

A 13th-century fresco in Rome’s Santi Quattro Coronati depicts Constantine, the Roman general who conquered pagan Rome under the sign of the cross and later converted to Christianity, sharing his crown with Pope Sylvester I. "This is the moment when the cross and the sword become one," explains, Carroll in director Oren Jacoby’s elucidating documentary.

His search also reveals a growing scandal involving religious infiltration of the U.S. military and the terrible consequences of religion’s influence on America’s foreign policy.

Carroll focuses on Christian anti-semitism as the model for all religious hatred, exposing the cross as a symbol of a long history of violence against Jews (and, most recently, Moslems). The film brings the history of religious intolerance to life, tracing it as a source of the fanaticism that threatens the world today.

Liev Schreiber, Philip Bosco, Natasha Richardson and Eli Wallach provide the voice-overs to director Oren Jacoby’s haunting and thought provoking film. At its core, Constantine’s Sword is a compelling personal narrative — a kind of detective story — as one man uncovers the dark areas of his own past, searching for a better future.