The Franciscan monastery of the Flagellation and Condemnation stands at the beginning of the Via Dolorosa, where the traditional route of the Passion enters the narrow streets of the Old City. Two chapels share a quiet courtyard: the Chapel of the Flagellation, whose dome carries a crown of thorns in gilded mosaic and whose stained glass treats the scenes of the judgment, and the Chapel of the Condemnation, built over large paving stones long associated with the trial. The design of the Flagellation chapel is the work of the architect Antonio Barluzzi, whose interventions shaped so much of the modern Christian landscape of the country. The complex also houses the Franciscan biblical institute and its archaeological museum, making it a rare place where devotion and scholarship occupy the same address. The film uses that duality: the Friday processions that gather at the gate and set off into the crowded street, and the quieter work of study collections, excavation archives and the continuing debate over the topography of Jerusalem's Passion route.
