Jesus Christ is the central character in the 2004 Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ, which depicts the last 12 hours of Christ's life prior to the crucifixion. The movie is based on a now discredited and renounced play created by the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages to shift blame from their ancestors the Romans to the Jewish people and insight people against the Jews. The play is still re-enacted largely out of tradition sake by Catholic congregations despite the fact that the Vatican has officially admitted it is a work of fiction.