Creators of Netflix’s ‘gay Jesus’ Christmas film: ‘We are only alive because Jesus was not gay and Black’
There was huge public backlash in December 2019 when a film was released to Netflix portraying Jesus as gay. (Twitter/ Porta dos Fundos)
A year on from their film’s release, the creators of Netflix’s “gay Jesus” Christmas comedy have reflected on the homophobic backlash that nearly cost them their lives.
A Primeira Tentação de Cristo, or The First Temptation of Christ, was created by Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos, whose offices were attacked with Molotov cocktails in the early hours of Christmas Eve last year in response to the film.
The film follows Jesus, who is gay and “hitting the big 3-0”, bringing his boyfriend home to meet his family at Christmas, and more than two million people signed a petition to ban the movie for “seriously offending Christians”.
In an interview with UOL, Porta dos Fundos reflected on last year’s events and discussed their new Christmas special.
Antonio Tabet, one of the co-founders of the group, said: “I’m certain that they only threw bombs at Porta because we made Jesus gay in last year’s special.
“I think the only reason we are alive is because we didn’t make Jesus gay and Black; otherwise, there would have been even more bombs.”
Fabio Porchat, another member of the group, added: “Last year, the backlash came from homophobes. This says a lot more about the people that were angry than it does about the special.”
Despite the violent response, the group said: “The events made us more sad than afraid because we live in a radical country and it proved that people are very crazy.
“We never thought about not launching this year’s special. We see it as the cherry on top of the cake at the end of the year.”
This year’s Porta dos Fundos special is titled Teocracia em Vertigem, or Theocracy in Vertigo, a parody of the outrage over their “gay Jesus” movie.
Porchat said: “‘The bomb was well-deserved’, ‘I want to see you making fun of Roman mythology,’ ‘if Jesus is back, I’ll kill again’. These are the kind of comments we received.
“We referenced a lot of what we heard from ‘minions’ [ardent Bolsonaro supporters] …There are a lot of references in the clip that ends this year’s special.”
Eduardo Fauzi, one of the men who set the Porto dos Fundos offices ablaze on 24 December, 2019, was arrested in Russia following the shocking incident, and is now seeking political asylum in the country.
It is understood that Fauzi fled Brazil following the incident and was later discovered to be living with the mother of his child in Moscow.
