It was such a memorable evening to see the cast, crew, volunteers, and supporters attend the Chicago premiere of the Passion of Blessed Mary film. We were blessed with the presence of His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin amongst priests, deacons, and over 750 attendees.

The evening started with attendees forming long lines to enter and were walking into the theatre and taking their seats promptly. Props from the film had been displayed for the audience to capture the essence of the film.

After the film screening, the attendees joined in the student center for coffee and refreshments to discuss the amazing job done by the cast and crew that made the film a possibility. Interviews were conducted by Shamiram Media and the Assyrian Church of the East Media on the reflections of the audience regarding the production.

A special thank you to all the cast, crew, volunteers, donors, and attendees that made the evening memorable for all.

"The Passion of Blessed Mary" movie premiere 4K (Chicago, Aug. 27, 2022) hosted by Adeel Johnson

Some of our cast and crew at the Assyrian Food Festival in Chicago! We can’t wait to showcase the hard work done throughout these years with this amazing project!

Link below to purchase your tickets to the film screening in Chicago!

https://acoeildiocese.givecloud.co/POBMmovieticket

We are so excited to have gotten this far, all glory to God! With the commemoration of the Blessed Mother Mary being this month, we are screening the Passion of Blessed Mary film for the first time in Chicago, Illinois. We are in preparation to host the premiere on August 27th at Christian Heritage Academy located at 315 Waukegan Rd, Northfield IL 60093.

Doors open at 6:00pm, the showing will start promptly at 6:30pm with refreshments afterwards

For tickets, please go to this link: https://bit.ly/3vJILZy

We would like to thank all of the amazing cast, crew, volunteers, and sponsors for the countless hours spent making this film and allowing us to spread the word of God. Without you, this would not be possible, THANK YOU!

We hope to see you at the film premiere!

We are in post production mode! So excited to have reached this far in our filming process. All glory goes to God!

Stay tuned for a release date in 2021!

#assyrian #aramaic #assyrianchurchoftheeast #blessedmary #mothermary #movie #christianfilm #virginmary #film #churchoftheeast

Assyrian Church of the East, Diocese of Eastern USA present Passion of Blessed Mary's official song under the title "Mother Mary" by Jina Kena

Assyrian Church of the East-Diocese of Eastern USA presents Passion of Blessed Mary

With Katia Dankha Mando and Jacob Younan

Directed by Frank Gilbart

Director of Photography Oc Joe

Edited by Ahmed Noor

Production Designer Jennifer Younan

Produced by Sh. Sargon Keso

Music by Erkan Erginci

Hair & Makeup by Violet Khamo and Narmsn Keso

#assyrian #aramaic #assyrianchurchoftheeast #blessedmary #mothermary #movie #christianfilm #virginmary #film #churchoftheeast

In February of 2021, the Passion of Blessed Mary filming went to Cairo, Egypt to conclude it’s final scenes. This was a historic trip as the word of God was spread throughout Cairo with this project.

We’d like to extend special thanks to the cast and crew from Cairo that helped bring these scenes to fruition.

Some prominent news media outlets from Cairo had featured the filming of the Passion of Blessed Mary. Here’s the articles from Cairo 24 and Rosael Youssef. Although the articles are in Arabic, below is the translation in English.

“The Passion of Blessed Mary" concludes its scenes in Egypt

The team of the new international film "The Passion of Blessed Mary,” produced by the Assyrian Church of the East, has concluded filming scenes of the journey of the Holy Family in Egypt.

It’s events revolve around the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was filmed in a number of countries, including Egypt and the United States of America. With the participation of a wide range of communities whose origins go back to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and America.

The film is directed by the international director Frank Gilbert, and is assisted by the Egyptian directing crew and the Iraqi director of photography, Baraq Salah, and the most prominent participants from the Iraqi side plays role of Iskariot, artist Hussein Mahdi. It is hoped that the film will be shown at the end of this year.

Watch a special announcement from Rev Tawer Andrious regarding the plan of completion for the Passion of Blessed Mary film.

On this historic day (10/10/2020) the Passion of Blessed Mary film finished filming the last outdoor scene at Botanical Gardens in Chicago! This accomplishment would not have been reached without the dedication and hard work of our talented director Frank Gilbert and his entire team! We thank them for their endless commitment to this project!

Our youth members for this scene have volunteered so much of their time, put in extraordinary effort and shown so much enthusiasm for completing this scene.

We are so excited to share this progress with you! Please continue to pray for us, support us, and share the progress! God bless you all!

Thank God for His continued blessings. Now it is time to start on building our indoor set and start the filming process for those indoor scenes.

We would like to extend a thank you to the following Assyrian Church of the East POBM team members for safely coming together during the past months to build the indoor scene sets of the Holy Family's home. Please enjoy this time-lapse video of all of their hard work!

Thank you for your hard work and dedication:

Atan Chabo

Jack Ader

Jennifer Younan

Larsa Kena

Narmsn Keso

Nenif Keso

Suzana Yalda

On August 1st, 2020, our cast and crew prepared for another day of filming at the Shrine of Christ’s Passion in Indiana. Today’s scenes included Young Jesus at the temple with the Holy Family. We were thrilled to have His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin and Rev Tawer Andrious join us on set and offer their continued support and blessings throughout the filming process.

On November 24th, 2019 we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner with the cast and crew of the Passion of Blessed Mary. His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin attended the dinner and gave his blessings and thanks to all of the amazing volunteers.

On October 26th, 2019, we filmed on location at Squire’s Castle in Willoughby, Ohio. The scenes filmed were of Jesus’ judgement trial and Pontius Pilate.

We were joined by over 100 cast and crew volunteers from Chicago. We were also joined by 50 parishioners from St. Mary’s Assyrian Church of the East from Detroit, Michigan.

Reverend Tawar Andrious also joined on set and gave his blessings. Watch his video below.

On June 22, 2019, we filmed one of our biggest scenes locally in the USA. The planning of this day took 8 months of behind the scenes preparations. We want to thank all of the cast and crew that helped us complete filming on this day and a special thank you to our donors and sponsors. We couldn’t have done this without you all.

The filming took place on location at the Shrine of Christ’s Passion in St. John, Indiana and had over 130 volunteers. The scenes filmed were of Jesus’ crucifixion and we were blessed with the presence and blessings of His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin who joined on the set.

Watch His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin’s opening prayers below.

Watch this exclusive interview with our director Frank Gilbert, our actress Juliana Thomas, who plays Mary Magdalene, and the writer/producer Sh. Sargoon Keso.

Watch the full video here.

On April 13, 2019, Passion of Blessed Mary crew joined the youth of St. Mary Church in Roselle along with the Giolas Foundation to help prepare 515 meals for the needy people in Chicago. Thank you to all of our volunteers.

Filming started with our director Frank Gilbart and Director of Photography Oc Joe on September of 2018 with our cast and crew. The first few scenes that we filmed were of St. Mary meeting with Elizabeth, the Holy Family visiting the temple, Herod in the great hall, and the slashing of Jesus Christ in the Roman’s jail room. His Grace Mar Paulus Benyamin visited the set of these first few scenes and gave his blessings for a successful filming journey.

Here’s a video of some behind the scene footage.

The Assyrian Church of the East, Diocese of the Eastern USA is producing a film about the Blessed Virgin Mary’s passion towards her son, Jesus Christ. The film portrays her perspective and feelings from hearing the good news from the Angel Gabriel to Jesus’ resurrection.