BLOOD LIBEL

LOGLINE: As a medieval city struggles with civic tension, a young monk finds himself trapped at the center of history's deadliest homicide investigation when he reopens the unsolved murder of a local boy. Based on the story of William of Norwich.

The year is 1144. Shock resonates through the English city of Norwich when a local boy named William is found murdered in the woods. Signs of ritualistic torture on the body spark William’s uncle to accuse the Norwich Jewish community of killing the boy for religious reasons. The Sheriff intervenes by safeguarding the Jews in the castle, but the clergy are not so easily deterred — and instead, leverage the social discord to establish sainthood for William. But the boy’s martyrdom fails to take root in the collective mind and fades from memory along with the ritual murder accusation… until six years later when a prominent Jewish banker turns up dead in the very same woods.

The year is now 1150. It is less than a century after the Norman Conquest, and the second crusade has ended in failure, creating intense economic and religious uncertainty. A young Benedictine Monk arrives in the city with his teacher, who wants to write William’s holy testament. Instead, the clever Bishop invites the monk to stay and write the virtue story needed to canonize William. He agrees and begins drafting The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, a real-life hagiography of the boy saint, which now resides in the Cambridge University Library — the only surviving copy.

As the Monk begins his investigation, a traumatized Knight returns from crusade to find himself injured and heavily in debt to the city’s toughest Jewish Banker. Desperate to regain his life, the Knight kills the Banker in the same woods where William was found. But the King does not appreciate losing a valuable asset, who brings in considerable money for the Crown, and the Knight is arrested and forced to stand trial in royal court. Seeing a chance to promote William’s sainthood, the Bishop agrees to defend the Knight’s innocence in court. But instead of focusing on the crime at hand, the Bishop uses his position to insist the Jews face due process for William’s death before receiving any justice for the murdered Banker.

News of a fresh accusation against the Jews spreads throughout the city, turning the Monk’s saintly study into a chaotic and politically-charged inquiry. And before too long, the Monk finds himself trapped at the center of a terrifying homicide investigation, where both the truth and his soul are at stake.