Photo: Adrian Novac

The director of a documentary on "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" Simcha Jacobovici dismisses in an interview for HotNews.ro the clergy’s criticism of his work and comparisons with Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”, which he says is fiction, as compared to the “archeology, science” presented in his hilm.

Shortly after he and James Cameron, who co-funded the documentary, held their first presentation on the issue in New York, he talked to us on film making, the collaboration with Cameron and his links to Romania.

HotNews.ro: We understand your parents were born in Romania. Is it true?

Simcha Jacobovici: Yes, my parents are born in Iasi. I was born in Israel and grew up in Montreal, often commuting between the two countries. I stopped by in Bucharest from time to time as well.

HotNews.ro: When did you last visited Romania?

Simcha Jacobovici: I made a movie about Struma, the ship that transported Jewish refugees to Palestine and sank [in the Black Sea]. I was in Bucharest for shooting in 2000 and the resulting documentary was put on screen at a festival there. Then I stopped visiting for several years, but I stopped by again not so long ago. I made a film about my family that I’d like to present in Romania as well.

HotNews.ro: On the documentary “The Lost Tomb of Christ”. The Romanian Orthodox Church has accused that the film is nothing but publicity. And it compares it to the “Da Vinci Code”.

Simcha Jacobovici: The “Da Vinci Code” is fiction, while my film is about archeology, science. How can the Romanian church reach the conclusion that the documentary is just publicity, before seeing the film or reading the book?

I am here, at the Central Library in Manhattan, with professors from Harvard, Princeton, other scientific institutions. I make films, I am not an archeologist