Marco Pontecorvo’s account of the Virgin Mary’s radiant appearance in 1917 Portugal finds little space for doubt, nor drama
Picking fault with faith films on dramatic grounds is like objecting to explicit sex scenes for being “boring”. Believers may well be swept away by this glossy account of the 1917 Miracle of the Sun in Fátima, Portugal – witnessed by 30,000 people and already the subject of feature films in 1952 and 2009. But given the inherent lack of drama in the kind of unbreakable faith on display here, anyone wishing to tell the story needs to work much harder than this laboured treatment to wring any nuance, conflict or indeed true sublimity from it.
To be fair, director Marco Pontecorvo – son of The Battle of Algiers’ Gillo – doesn’t disgrace himself on the latter front. There’s an undeniable sacred frisson as Mediterreanean winds caress the olive trees and invisible feet flatten the saltgrass, as the Virgin Mary first visits three young shepherds Lúcia, Jacinta and Francisco, and anoints them as her messengers. The trio quickly attract followers among a war-weary populace eager for deliverance. But others think Lucia (Stephanie Gil) is just seeking attention, including the rational-minded mayor, eager to get a public order nightmare under control, and her own devout mother Maria Rosa (Lúcia Moniz), worried her daughter’s presumptuousness will anger Him upstairs.