A 19-year-old student, accompanied by her mother’s ex-boyfriend, embarks on a poignant journey to find her abducted mother. Through their search, both the mother, through her captivity, and the travel companions relive past relationships and unresolved emotions. The quest also reveals shocking revelations about the New Testament.

SYNOPSIS:

FORMAT: Feature, 105 minutes

LOGLINE

A 19-year-old student, accompanied by her mother’s ex-boyfriend, embarks on a poignant journey to find her abducted mother. Through their search, both the mother, through her captivity, and the travel companions relive past relationships and unresolved emotions. The quest also reveals shocking revelations about the New Testament.

COMPS: The Da Vinci Code

WHY NOW? The research in this script is authentic and has been conducted over the years by various historians. I was surprised that this information had hardly reached the general public, which inspired me to write this script.

TITLE: THE LOST CODEX

We go back 20 years. In a hotel room in Oxford, a somewhat confused twenty-year-old Pepin stares out the window at Sofia, who is roughly his age and quickly crosses the street until she is out of sight. He sits on the bed, trying to process their one-time encounter. He isn’t a man who easily approaches women, but yesterday, he did…

Near Oxford, seven years later, six-year-old Maria is eager to learn to ride a horse. She persuades her mother, Sofia, to take her to a riding school, where they meet Pepin, the owner. After all these years, it is a strange reunion. The sensitive Pepin respectfully distances himself as Sofia emphatically ignores him. She wants to leave, but now that Maria is enamoured with the black stallion Max, she reminds her mother of her promise. Eventually, with Maria's “help,” Sofia and Pepin begin a relationship.

Out of respect for Sofia’s religious beliefs, Pepin never mentions their first meeting during their six-year relationship. Over the years, Maria and Pepin develop a bond of trust, strengthened by their shared passion for horses. This connection helps Maria reconnect with a deeper part of herself that her mother's strict upbringing had suppressed. Sofia, a theologian and researcher at Oxford University, prefers to see Maria as a pious girl.

Six years later, Sofia and Pepin are divorced, leaving Pepin devastated and absorbed in his work while Sofia faces a crisis of faith. She spends years researching the New Testament, not as a compliant theologian but as an independent researcher, making shocking discoveries about Christianity's identity and authenticity.

Six years later, in a Swiss abbey, Jochen, an ultra-conservative pastor in his mid-fifties, delivers a pulpit speech to ten young men dressed in black overalls, convincing them that the Church needs their help. He proudly looks down at what he calls the Brotherhood and notices that Aaron, a 20-year-old Swiss Guard member, is deeply impressed by him.

Sofia travels to Geneva with Helena, an archaeologist and her roommate from work in her late thirties, to visit the merchant Kafèle, who is offering a codex for sale. Despite discovering Kafèle lifeless with traces of violence in his hotel room, Helena remains calm and inspects the room, finding the codex. They leave the hotel separately; Sofia, confused and suspicious, secretly sends the codex to a friend. Jochen, seeking the codex, kidnaps with Helena's help and holds her in a Swiss abbey.

At the riding stables near Oxford, Maria, now a 19-year-old woman, visits Pepin at his riding centre, reporting that her mother has been missing for two days. After a hard-line and emotional beginning, they go to Sofia’s house and find her mobile phone. Hoping to gain insight, they also take her notes with them.

In her cell in the abbey, Sofia, sad and remorseful, stares at three photos of Maria: a baby, a carefree young girl on Max, and an 18-year-old woman. She realises she has missed a lot in Maria's life. In a way, she gave up on her daughter when she realised Maria would not follow in her footsteps. Pepin filled that void—Pepin, whose careless remark, standing before the statues of Petrus and Paulus in Rome two weeks before the divorce, set her on a different path. Although she has spent the past six years uncovering New Testament inaccuracies stemming from Paul's visions, she struggles to accept this fully. Knowing that the Church has a history of allowing unwanted manuscripts and gospels to vanish, she resolves not to succumb to Jochen's threats. What worries her most is the behaviour of her roommate Helena, who seems to be leading a double life. Who is she, for real?

In the main hall of Oxford University, Pepin waits for Maria, who is posing as an employee, to reveal the address of the enigmatic Helena. As he scrolls through Sofia's phone, he sees that the latest calls have been made to Switzerland. To his dismay, he discovers an unsent message meant for him. The shock is overwhelming when he reads that he is Maria's father. Pepin does not know how to deal with this and decides to keep it hidden from Maria.

The journey will be defined by the processing of Sofia's message and the reunion with the young, confident woman who turns out to be his daughter.

In Oxford, to Maria and Pepin’s surprise, Helena lives in a modernly furnished bungalow. The two force their way into the posh house. The discovery of a famous missing painting makes them realise that Helena is more than just an archaeologist.

In the abbey, Helena learns that Maria has been spotted in Geneva and, to her horror, that Jochen has ordered Aaron to kidnap Maria and kill Pepin to put pressure on Sofia. Although she is annoyed by Sofia's stubbornness, she decides to help her escape. Also, she calls Asal, the 20-year-old daughter of Egyptian art dealer Kafèle, now the head of her family.

In Geneva, Maria senses Pepin is holding something back. Their tension escalates to the point where she sends Pepin back home. Later, after Pepin receives an anonymous message from Asal, he manages to prevent Maria from being kidnapped at the last minute; after that, he makes her read Sofia's mail. Although Pepin understands Maria's anger at her mother's hypocrisy and silence about their kinship, he defends Sofia, explaining her isolation in the love triangle and her loss of identity as a former believer.

Back In the Abbey, which Jochen cleared, after a hectic day in a small town, Sofia confides in Helena. One evening, while Sofia plans to reveal their shared kinship to Pepin and Maria, 12-year-old Maria invites many friends over. Sofia is dismayed to see her daughter dressed in an outfit she views as inappropriate, realising that Pepin is more involved in Maria's life than she is. This upsets her deeply, leading her to remain silent.

In a park in Rome, Asal manages to prevent an attack on Maria and Pepin. Aaron, who was filming the attack, is tied to a tree like a crucified man, and Asal executes him to avenge her father's murder. She then helps Maria and Pepin find the abbey.

Alarmed by the latest setback, Jochen's client withdraws the assignment. The Church's loss of trust in him drives Jochen to desperation, leading him to commit suicide. With the leader gone, the other members of the Brotherhood quickly surrender. When Sofia sees her daughter with her father, she realises they have uncovered the truth during their search and that their bond is genuine. Their reunion fosters forgiveness and understanding, prompting Pepin to ask Sofia to marry him.

THE END. Written by Paul Bloemers