English summary

In this acclaimed, wonderfully inventive comedy God is portrayed not as a kind, supreme superbeing, but as a sullen tyrant who lives with his family in a rancid three-room apartment in Brussels. From behind his computer he smirkingly inflicts doom and gloom on humanity. His daughter hacks his computer in protest, sends everybody on earth their death date, and goes in search of six new apostles to write a new testament. The candidates include an aspiring assassin and a sex addict.
God protests that when people are freed from their fear of death he will lose his power. Director Van Dormael poses the question whether people will change how they live if they know when they will die: will they carry on with their old ways or they throw all caution to the wind? One man, for example, keeps on jumping from buildings and bridges without any protection since he already knows his death lies many years in the future. Recklessness is an inevitable consequence. But finally it becomes evident that knowledge brings liberation.