Ballads of the Exodus

BALLADS OF THE EXODUS breaks new ground on several fronts. It is the first Christian film with an entirely Israeli cast and crew, shot exclusively in Israel and Saudi Arabia. This watershed film was produced against the political backdrop of the “Abraham Accords,” the normalization of multiple Arab states with Israel, with budding friendships between longtime enemies in the Middle East. The crew was the first group to enter Saudi Arabia weeks after the Saudis opened the country in 2019 to international tourism for the first time in history.
Much of the stunning footage was captured around Jebel al-Lawz, the mountain in northwest Saudi Arabia believed by many to be the real Mount Sinai. Among the various candidates considered by archeologists, Jebel-al-Lawz is the only mountain with an unbroken ancient Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tradition that identifies it as the historical Mount Sinai.
Unique among cinematic retellings of the life of Moses and birth of the Israeli nation, BALLADS OF THE EXODUS was shot and produced on location where many of the events of the Book of Exodus actually took place. Director Dalton Thomas and Executive Producers Joel Richardson and Cynthia Hughes canvassed the rich landscapes of Israel and Saudi Arabia to explore the true locations of many of the events in the Book of Exodus before filming began; places like the split rock, the golden calf altar, and of course the real Mount Sinai itself. These jaw-dropping locations are captured on film in a way that blends documentary-style realism and authenticity with an out-of-the-box retelling of one of the most famous stories ever told.
Opting to forego any use of visual effects or CGI, Thomas, Director of Photography Ryan Tidrick, and their Israeli crew sought to accomplish every scene with practical effects on location where the events actually happened. While the film is indeed more of an intimate character-driven drama than a blockbuster action film, the scale and scope of many of the more dramatic moments of the Exodus story were executed with remarkable realism.
The original soundtrack and score of BALLADS OF THE EXODUS was written in the Golan Heights, composed and produced in Warsaw, Poland, and features some of the most talented musicians around the world today, including renowned Israeli artists and members of Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir. Visionary producer Pawel Bzim Zarecki composed what is nothing short of a groundbreaking achievement. From sweeping orchestral arrangements to classic reggae, from Americana folk ballads to heavy industrial rock, from aggressive rap to rapturous Gospel choirs, each ballad draws from a different musical heritage and opens up new ways of considering the implications of the story of the life of Moses. The album is sure to be recognized as a watershed in Christian music.