An illegitimate boy flees the bullies in his village by becoming a stable hand in the Roman cavalry. He journeys far from his desert homeland to a strange new forested world along the Rhine River, where the legions have been sent to subdue the barbarian tribes. “The Bastard” is a thoroughly researched, action-driven epic that realistically portrays the secret, transformative decades in the life of Jesus—an outcast human character caught in a clash of cultures during a brutal age.