Film about miraculous Fatima apparitions heaven-sent during the pandemic
Actress Sonia Braga plays Lucia as an adult in the movie Fatima. Picturehouse photo.
(REVIEW) Movie releases in the age of COVID-19 have been tricky. Theaters around the world have been shuttered in order to stem the spread of the virus. The summer box office season — one of Hollywood’s most profitable — has evaporated. Instead, movie-goers are home binge-watching TV shows.
Viewers interested in religion and history can take a break from Netflix starting this weekend and watch Fatima, a new movie from Picturehouse originally planned to be released in April but delayed because of the pandemic. Directed by Marco Pontecorvo, Fatima is not for cynics. Devout Catholics will enjoy this film — but non-believers should keep an open mind.
The 113-minute film, which details the story of three Portuguese children who said they had been visited by an apparition of an angel and six times by Mary, is moving, hopeful and inspiring. These are the very qualities in a movie that audiences crave, especially during a pandemic.
This emotional and intense movie centers around 10-year-old Lucia dos Santos (played by Stephanie Gil), along with her two cousins Francisco (Jorge Lamelas) and Jacinta Marto (Alejandra Howard). The trio reported having received apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917 near a cave on the outskirts of the small town of Fatima. While the revelations ultimately inspire local believers, they cause anger from both their families, the church hierarchy and government officials who try to force the children to recant their story.
The actors who play the children are especially talented. As their relatives and villagers cast doubt of their accounts (including Lucia’s incredulous mother who can’t fathom why Mary would ever appear to her daughter), the movie forces viewers to side with the children. As the movie shows, word of their prophecy spreads. There is nothing like the faith of a child and the message of hope that it can bring to a people at a time of great crisis. Europe was grappling with the horrors of World War I at the time.
As a result of the visions, thousands of pilgrims eventually flock to the site to witness on October 13, 1917 in what would become known as the “Miracle of the Sun.” The film gives the story more authenticity since it is filmed entirely in Portugal. News photos from that day are also used in the film.
“It’s very well- known in a lot of Catholic countries,” Pontecorvo said. “I didn’t know any of the details of Lucia’s life or about Portugal in that era, so I had to jump into the history. Because it took place at the height of the First World War, the politics were an important element, but I focused primarily on the relationships, particularly between the mother and the daughter, and Lucia and the Virgin Mary. The triangle is quite interesting.”
Like many faith-based films, Fatima features an international cast. There are some familiar faces to American audiences, including Harvey Keitel and Sonia Braga. Kietel plays a skeptical scholar in conversation with Braga, who plays the older Lucia inside a convent where’s she’s a Carmelite nun. The conversation serves as a great storytelling device, pitting skeptics and contrasting them to those who believe the children.
Another highlight of the film is its score. Gratia Plena (which means “full of grace” in Latin), beautifully performed by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and composed by Paolo Buonvino, is an Oscar-caliber song. Bocelli broke YouTube records this past Easter, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Italy, with a concert from the Milan Cathedral.
The vision at Fatima has turned the former farming village into a pilgrimage site for many Catholics. Two million people visited the site in the decade following the events of 1917. A small chapel was later erected by locals. In 1920, pilgrims defied authorities and installed a statue of Mary at the site known as Our Lady of Fatima. A Mass was celebrated there for the first time four years later — and a basilica was eventually built on the site. In 1930, the church officially deemed the apparition “worthy of belief.” Pilgrims visit on the 13 day of each month — but particularly on May 13 and Oct. 13 — when upwards of a million people descend upon the site to pray.
Lucia, who died in 2005 at age 97, is on the road to being canonized a saint. While Lucia devoted her life to faith, her cousins would die a year after the apparitions as a result of the 1918 pandemic. It is that noteworthy footnote that makes this film even more relevant to us today. Then, like now, the world is in need of hope. This movie offers just that.
Fatima is available now via several streaming services that include Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.