On a movie set
Helen was the very first to be stripped, raped and crucified. A couple of cameramen and photographers documented her abuse and nailing. But the task was more difficult for them than they supposed. The woman screamed, cried, kicked and writhed as a mad while being nailed, far exceeding all the staff and the director expectations regarding the realism of the passion! The director even hesitated if they would continue the filming, affraid that the other women, awaiting their turn and watching her friend being so terribly tormented would withdraw from the contract. But they didn't. They had their pride and they wanted to get out of the situation with honor and fulfill their task. At that moment, they did not think about the fact that their task was to completely lose their honor and pride, hanging naked on crosses, specially designed to completely take away the victims' dignity!
So, they simply ask the director to continue, bravely hidding the fact that they were extremely terrified of their friend's suffering. And when the torturers finished nailing Helen and her body sprayed with blood finally hung on the first cross, and the photographers left the arena (the further scenes were filmed from some distance) and joined the four or five actors and several hundreds of extras, sitting on the audience to be filmed as the ancient onlookers, the remaining women bravely allowed the executioners to be taken to the arena, stripped naked and nailed to their crosses. And it was not for lack of courage that they were thrashing, screaming and crying during this nailing, and at that time in the foreground Margaret's husband, dressed as a slave, "raped" her, and she was screaming and crying just as much. And then he helped nail her wife to the wood and set her cross up, hanging her as the last in the line of crucified "Christians".
Within ten minutes all the crosses bearing naked, bloody female bodies, strained with pain, were fixed vertically after one another. The lone cameraman left on the arena filmed the long row of naked bodies, emerging one from behind the other, as he, standing at the end of this "alley of death", moved the lens and focused on successive convicts, with their genitals stretched in pain and labia parted in agony in the very center of the image... The sight was terrifying and the terrible screams of pain and howls of tortured women rent the air, contrasting with the birds' chirps and singing, and the merry voices of the onlookers, laughing at the "Christian sluts" and mocking them.
The hot sun was shining from above - it was nearly midday - and the air was warm and dry but the bodies of the actresses were wet with sweat. But soon the weather changed. The wind picked up and heavy rain clouds began to gather. To avoid problems, after another ten minutes the cameramen did they best to film all the shots needed for the movie. They were in a hurry to finish before the rainfall could terminate their work.
After the filming was done, the extras and photographers were allowed to enter the arena once again. They greedily looked at the beautiful bodies of their friends, stretched on crosses. The photographers took the last images and the cameramen filmed close-ups, and after three or four minutes the work was completed.
But before the assistants and medical personnel could lay down the crosses and free the actresses, the thunderbolt rolled over the circus and a short but violent rain fell.
For safety reasons, the technicians stopped removing the safety pins and screws, fearing that the wet wood could slip from their hands and hinges as they rotated the crosses horizontally, and the women nailed to them could suffer serious injuries.
Many viewers run to hide somewhere but still many of them remained in the square, looking under hastily opened umbrellas at the women being beaten by the violent downpour, unable to protect themselves from it in any way, while those of the photographers and filmmakers, whose equipment had waterproof casings, quickly took pictures.
The unexpected phenomenon wonderfully showed how vulnerable the crucifixion victims are to ordinary natural circumstances, including weather conditions. The director decided of course that the resulting additional scenes must be included in the film.
Fortunately for the actresses, the heavy rain quickly subsided and only then did the removal of the women begin, starting with Helen, who was hanged first, so she hung the longest. The rest of the girls in the order of nailing suffered from 35 to 45 minutes (Luise was the second longest), but Helen broke the record, because she hung there for almost an hour.
After one more hour the circus finally emptied and only the puddles full of the red water, mixed with blood, in the places where the twelve crosses were dug into the arena sand witnessed the wonderful but terrifying spectacle that took place here.
