The Exodus Decoded (2006)

 

Complex yet utterly compelling, The Exodus Decoded is presented by movie director James Cameron (Titanic) but is the passion of Jewish-Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici. Jacobovici has extensively researched evidence that the Biblical account of the Exodus was real, and concludes that it actually took place in 1500 BCE (during the reign of pharaoh Ahmos I), historically known as the Hyksos Expulsion. The Hyksos people were a Semitic race about whom little is known. But their departure from Egypt, following a long enslavement, along with early writings and other physical evidence, make a strong case that they are the Hebrews of lore. Jacobovici suggests the Exodus is also connected to the catastrophic eruption of the Santorini volcano, which ended the Minoan civilization and triggered a limnic eruption (a surge of carbon dioxide) in the Nile river delta. The latter would have killed the river's fish but likely chased out all the frogs, a phenomenon that could have been considered one of the famous plagues in the Exodus story. (Jacobovici makes a case for the other so-called plagues also being a consequence of the eruption.) Whatever one's opinion of The Exodus Decoded as a historical documentary, it is engrossing viewing, shot in some truly exotic locations, often under the highly suspicious eye of Egyptian authorities. Several moments--such as the revelation of a Hyksos slave's rock carving, pleading with God to be rescued--are astonishing