Only love can save mankind. That is the message of Assi Dayan, the 2004 model, in his new film, "Habesora al pi Elohim" (The Gospel According to God), showing at theaters starting today.

The movie is set in the middle of 2001. God, played by Dayan, and his son Jesus (Gil Kopatch), are sitting idle in heaven. In Dayan's view, heaven looks like a piece of Tel Avivian rooftop, just without the solar panels and water tanks. God, wearing a tattered robe that exposes a large cross, sits sloppily in front of a television set on which Vered David (Channel 1 news announcer) is shown reporting a war, alternately with Yaron Pe'er (from the shopping channel) tempting viewers to buy house slippers.

An emissary (Zion Baruch, a member of the Ma Kashur trio) appears on the roof and hands God a letter reminding him that on January 1, 2002 he has to send his son to Earth in order to redeem mankind.

To this end four characters come to Jesus' aid: Luke (Roberto Pollack) teaches him about his personal history and explains where and how the renewed redemption will take place; Torquemada (Golan Azulai), a homosexual who headed the Spanish Inquisition, teaches Jesus how to withstand suffering; Joan of Arc (Dana Parnas) teaches him love; and Mother Theresa (Erica Knoller) teaches him how to speak in front of a crowd.

Much has been said in recent months about the cinematic Jesus in the context of "The Passion of the Christ." The juxtaposition is accidental: Dayan finished writing his screenplay before Gibson's movie ever saw the light of day. The messages of the two films are opposites: Gibson portrays, in shockingly explicit graphics, the hours that preceded the crucifixion of the son of God; Dayan uses the Christian figures to preach love.

"Assi Dayan wanted to transmit his message from an absolute point of view, so he chose God," says Haim Mecklberg, who produced the film with Yoram Kislev. "Assi Dayan's God is a great creator who produced the ultimate creation, but since then all that was left for him was the maintenance work. He is bored."

Dayan's God is grotesque. He is old and ugly, sometimes lustful, tries to get physical with Joan of Arc and is sometimes a pedophile who fancies a girl he meets on Earth.

He is really not a lascivious man," says Mecklberg. "Joan of Arc's breasts do not interest him, only the concept of falling in love. He is also not a pedophile, but only seeks love. When he fell in love with Miriam, she was just 16, and when he does not succeed in falling in love with Joan of Arc, he believes the reason is that pure love will be found only in girls at the age of first love."

Seven years have passed since Dayan released his last film ("Mr. Baum"), which was also produced by Mecklberg and Kislev. About three years ago he began to work on "The Gospel According to God." At first the screenplay was more comical and different from the final screen version. "The screenplay gradually turned into something," says Mecklberg. "When one goes out to shoot with Assi, the screenplay is nothing more than a general sketch. His work is so precise and so smart that it is a pleasure. More than once, as a producer, you encounter the caprices of a director who changes the whole world just to beautify a frame. It's depressing. But anyone who works with Assi Dayan understands that it is not a caprice and his reasons are only content, content, content."

Mecklberg sounds like one of the directors fans.

"Assi needs love and admiration," he explains, "and I feel he has proved he is worthy of them. For me there is nothing greater than making a film with Assi Dayan. I love his filmmaking; his writing excites me. Every time my fax machine spews out a page of screenplay he has written, it makes my day."

In the beginning Dayan wanted Chaim Topol to play God, but he declined ("The role was too small for Topol," says Mecklberg). Only after much debate did Dayan understand that "it is impossible to play God, so he decided to play himself." While viewing the movie, it is impossible not to wonder at the craziness of this grandeur.

"Assi's God was so human, small and full of weaknesses that it is impossible to blame him for an insanity of grandeur," says his faithful producer.

"The Gospel According to God" is the exclusive handiwork of Assi Dayan.

"There really isn't much freedom of operation when working with him," adds Mecklberg. "In a very few words he manages to define exactly what the lighting man, the actor, the cinematographer and the rest of the workers are supposed to do. He had total involvement in every single thing."

Satan is played by Tinkerbell, who puts a real spirit of mischief into the whole film. Dayan and Tinkerbell have worked together in the past in the movies, "Zimzum" (The Glow) and "Hahesder" (Time of Favor) - and this role was written for her.

"They work very well together," says the producer. "She plays a young Satan with some big psychological problems."

In one of the most shocking scenes in the movie, which leaves viewers breathless for a moment, Satan erupts in an attack of rage and destroys the Twin Towers. That scene seems to lack any screenplay context, and Mecklberg admits that he cannot explain this scene, but says, "Dayan wanted to choose an event that he viewed as absolute evil, evil that, if Satan exists, he would do with nonchalance."

Mecklberg tells of a screening in which the audience in the theater started laughing at this scene. "I imagine that they were laughing at the daring or the chutzpa," he says. "Maybe they thought it was an attempt by Assi to slaughter every sacred cow that stands in his way."