'I Am'

The choice to portray God - 'I Am' - as a young boy was very moving, I thought.

Especially in the scene where God gets angry and upset about the centuries of slavery and demands justice. It felt like watching a small child who is offended by all the evil in the world and wants nothing else but for it to stop. There is a sincerity in the way children can be offended by the evil that adults do. It was a powerful scene for me.

I also loved the final scene, which to me sent out a message of God still being among us. At least, that's an expression of my personal faith, so obviously that was my first interpretation of that scene. Not saying that it's the only interpretation :)

Overall it was a challenging concept, radically opposed to the common image of the biblical God as almighty and fearsome - the 'I Am' in this movie was fearsome but not portrayed in the way I would expect. The choice for a child also allowed for creative freedom in the conversations between God and Moses: conversations between a child and an adult where the child was the more powerful, yet at the same time actual conversations going back and forth, which fits within the tradition to consider Moses as an intimate friend of God.

I wonder who played the 'I Am' character; I don't see him in the credits, which is odd. Or did I miss it?

'We're going to see a dead kid... Maybe it shouldn't be a party.'
- Gordie (Stand By Me)