Exodus is a contemporary retelling of the Biblical story of Exodus, that was released in 2007. It was directed by Penny Woolcock

Penny Woolcock

Penny Woolcock is a British filmmaker, opera director, and screenwriter. She was raised in a British community in Montevideo, speaking English and going to English schools...

 and was shot on location in Margate

Margate

-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The film, which had a working title 'The Margate Exodus' features the burning of a large sculpture of a man made out of waste by Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley

Antony Mark David Gormley OBE RA is a British sculptor. His best known works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in the North of England, commissioned in 1995 and erected in February 1998, Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool, and Event Horizon, a multi-part site...

. The film was shown on Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 on 19 November 2007.

Synopsis

The leader of the country, called Pharaoh (who is plagued by voices), declares war upon society's 'undesirables'. Drug abusers, refugees, criminals and the homeless are all considered equally worthless and entered into a restricted ghetto, called 'Dreamland' (a former fun fair), where they cannot leave.

When Moses learns he was adopted by Pharaoh and is actually the son of an asylum seeker, he shuns his life of privilege to lead the ghetto's inhabitants in a revolt against his father.

A series of 'plagues' echoing the biblical story attack the inhabitants of the 'promised land' including algal blooms which turn the sea red (like the first plague of turning the River Nile to blood) and a computer virus (possibly a modern reworking of the sickness in live stock plague).

The plagues are treated as acts of terrorism by those in the promised land and violent reprisals are sought against those in Dreamland.