For months now, I have openly theorized that Angel Studios exists solely to promote Christian Nationalism. With the underreported, largely unseen, and highly off-message I Was a Stranger –you don’t unironically quote Jesus in a movie title without an intense Christian agenda in mind- I got proof, and then I got much more. For with this film, I not only realized that Christian Nationalism is what this studio is all about, they also have zero idea what MAGA actually stands for. And that realization is why this film went largely hidden while my media blows up with David! David! David!
I Was a Stranger is a 2024 film. When it was made, Trump wasn’t President. Yet the opening pan from the skyline down the Chicago River takes us exactly to … Trump tower. That isn’t a mistake. That isn’t an error. 99% of the film won’t take place in Chicago, and it certainly won’t take place near anything ‘Trump.” Yet, this is a film that wanted us to know from the very opening that Trump is the motivation behind the vignettes of courage to follow.
And then Trump became President again, and I can only imagine the conversation at Angel Studios:
“Yay! Trump is President! We may get our Christo-fascist state yet! It is our time to soft-peddle Christian domination in the United States!”
“Ok, what do you have in mind?”
“Let’s start by pushing all our new productions with subtle and not-so-subtle Christian messages, like Sketch and The Senior and The Last Rodeo … let people know what wholesome entertainment is about – while pushing Jesus on them, again and again and again …”
“Ummm, what about I Was a Stranger?”
“OH, HELL YES! Get that Jesus title out there!”
“Ummm, have you actually seen the film?”
“Er, no. Does that matter? Isn’t the film about courage? Isn’t that how we want Christians to identify?”
“Yes. It most certainly is about courage … the courage of Syrian war-torn refugees and those trying to help them start new lives.”
“Yeah … so…?”
“Sooooooo … American ‘Christians’ aren’t that Christian. At least the ones who voted for Trump or care about Christo-Nationalism aren’t.”
“They’re … not?”
“Not even close. They’re racist, sexist, bigoted, and extremely xenophobic. They can’t wait to ‘close the borders’ and deport anyone foreign back to their ‘shithole’ country, or even worse, deport them to International prison hellscapes just for the crime of wanting to be American. You think these folks care about Syrian refugees?! HAHAHAHAHA!”
“But Jesus says …”
“THEY DON’T CARE!! The actual teachings of Jesus mean nothing to MAGA voting American Christians. They would happily starve the hungry, strip the poor, ignore the sick, or dismiss the stranger if it meant eggs were 15 cents cheaper next week.”
“So a film promoting kindness to Syrian refugees …”
“Will be considered ‘WOKE’ and heavily criticized … if it is seen at all.”
“Rats. OK. Release it next January … after David! They’ll like David, right?”
“An underdog who kills a big bad guy? They’ll lap it up. That’s exactly how they see themselves. They won’t like the part where he becomes a peacenik as an adult, but nobody will remember that part.”
I Was a Stranger is comprised of four independent overlapping tales:
THE DOCTOR – A Syrian woman (Yasmine Al Massri) trying to escape to Turkey
THE SMUGGLER – A father (Omar Sy) who is tender with his child, but an absolute dick to everybody else, including -and especially- the refugees he smuggles from Turkey to Greece.
THE POET – A more caring father (Ziad Bakri) tries to get his family of refugees from Turkey to Greece.
THE CAPTAIN – A Greek Coast Guard vet (Constantine Markoulakis) rescues the refugees
The common theme is courage. It took courage for every non-oppressor in the story. It’s weird that the character that sticks out the most is the smuggler, mostly because he displayed no courage. In fact, we are torn between this man’s heartfelt love for his sick motherless
child and his ruthless, ugly take-the-money-and-run behavior towards the refugees he abandons.
And now is a good reminder that all Angel Studios films are propaganda. It doesn’t matter what is shown; there’s always an agenda. But here I am so amused as to how they got Trump so wrong. Just so, so, so wrong. Whoever made this picture honestly believed it would appeal to Christians because of random courage and the rise of the meek. But courage and supporting genuine underdogs is not something Trump or MAGA care about at all. In fact, it is the exact opposite. You have made an anti-bully film and attempted to sell it to bullies.
Bravo. Brav-o.
As for the film itself … well, stories like this are told in pieces often because no individual story is strong enough to stand on its own. This thesis is true of I Was a Stranger; none of these tales is strong enough to build an entire movie around by itself. The closest is THE POET because of the harrowing boat ride between Turkey and Greece, but -wow- did that look staged. And, please movie, tell me why people are falling out of the boat. You take away the courage aspect from these vignettes – which one is apt to do because of THE SMUGGLER – and this film is four disjointed tales with no common thread and very unsatisfactory resolution. In other words, this might be the best Angel Studios film to date.
A studio got excited for Trump
They thought for their issues he’d stump
But that ain’t Don’s way
Cuz at the end of the day
Between you and him, he’ll take a dump
Rated PG-13, 103 Minutes
Director: Brandt Andersen
Writer: Brandt Andersen
Genre: Movies that make baby Jesus happy?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who are proud of themselves for having made/watched this film
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The intended audience
