In February 2004, the controversial film, The Passion of the Christ, co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson for his company, Icon Productions, was released to enormous acclaim. Church groups throughout the country bought out theaters to see it in groups. Religious leaders debated whether it had an anti-Semitic overtone, for blaming the Jewish rabbis in the film for Jesus’s death. It became one of the most popular and celebrated independent films of all time and the highest-grossing R-rated film until the release of Deadpool (2016). The film was banned in Kuwait and Bahrain, because the religion of Islam forbids
