ABSTRACT
The distinctive presence of the voice of God, which clarifies his plan and gives detailed instructions on how to carry it out, is quite a challenge for a cinematic retelling of the flood story. The dialectics of God's hiddenness and presence—a multifaceted presence in different media beyond direct speech—has two important impacts. First, it opens narrative space to enhance the dramatic fabric of the story, to develop interpretative proposals for filling the many Leerstellen of the biblical story, especially regarding the inner world of the human characters, and to address questions that in the biblical text only lurk between the lines. Second, it increases the compatibility of the narration with the contemporary state of mind: an enlightened mind, that is 'modern' in his/her alienation from direct verbal revelations of God, but at the same time 'postmodern' in his/her readiness to get involved with fantasy and mythic storytelling.
