Yesterday I watched "Fatima" (2020), and even though really liked it, I felt the script confused, skipping several parts of the astonishing real story. So tonight I decided to watch "The 13th Day" and it was quite interesting. Even though it also skips parts of the story, it's reasonably complementary to the other one.

For anyone interested in this incredible true story, I recommend to watch both films and also read some text about it, the two films together didn't embrace everything that happened. Neither film, for example, portrays any informations of the penultimate meeting in september 13th.

What caught my attention in this one was the cinematography, with distressing black and white photography alternating with precise moments of color insertion. The cast is also fine, although I thought Lúcia's actress seemed very old compared to the real seer, even more so than in the film "Fatima", whose actress is also a little older.

Our Lady's face here I found more pure and angelic than in the other film, but the apparitions in the other film were more simple and convincing, here in "The 13th Day" they're more stylized according to church patterns.

Another thing that caught my attention was the soundtrack, there were moments that reminded me a lot of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Well, this movie tells a very beautiful and real story, witnessed by at least 70k people, which in itself makes it completely recommendable from me.

The problem with most religious films is that the filmmakers have a habit of equating religion with piety and piety with gross sentimentality. There is also usually a surfeit of kind priests and nice nuns being kind and nice to beatific children or else they will be about Jesus, saints and miracles and the inexplicable. Perhaps the most famous religious movie about sainthood is "The Song of Bernadette" with an unlikely Jennifer Jones as Saint Bernadette. That turned out to be so much better than it might have been, not free from piety but very well written, directed and acted.

Of course Lourdes, where many Christians, or at least Catholics, believe the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, is probably the most famous place of pilgrimage in Christianity outside of Israel. Fatima, where a similar apparition is said to have happened in 1917, is less well known. The movie "The Miracle of Fatima" was a decent enough attempt to deal with those events and now we have "The 13th Day", a kind of amateur docu-drama about what happened at Fatima. Co-directed by Dominic and Ian Higgins it comes across as something commissioned by the Catholic Church purely for Catholics, (it certainly won't win any converts), and is acted by a cast of non-professionals.

The amazing thing is it, too, is nowhere near as bad as it could have been though it's certainly no "Song of Bernadette". Stylistically it's closer to Rossellini's "The Flowers of St. Francis" but without the rigor or the beauty that Rossellini brought to his subject and what passes for acting certainly lets it down. Non-believers will either avoid the film like the plague or will see it as nothing more than Catholic propaganda while believers might find it closer to a demonic horror movie than a tale of future saints. Shot mostly in monochrome with colour inserts it's well enough made but unlikely to appeal to all but the very few.

"In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came to Fatima to ask men and women to stop offending God, our Lord, who is already very offended. It is a mother's sorrow that compels her to speak" (John Paul II, 2000).

Whilst looking forward to an accurate, faithful and convincing screen adaptation about the 1917 extraordinary events at Fatima (Portugal), I encountered a view that what we need is not a movie that attempts at visually pleasant production with top notch performances but something that absorbs us profoundly, almost mystically, and presents an ever-open, still actual message of Fatima. Something up-to-date in its method of communication that may inspire modern generation. Meanwhile, we have encountered many screen adaptations. Most of them, however, either focused on the cinematic combination of history and fiction or simply resorted to sheer linear monotony. The crucial thing, however, is to understand the significance of these apparitions as a "prophetic mission" (Benedict XVI's words). Luckily, a few years before the centenary of these events, we are indeed fortunate to see Dominic and Ian Higgins' THE 13TH DAY which truly appears to meet that expectation. A movie like barely any other screen production, is a profound achievement fanned by the 'flame of faith' where the thought provoking question Benedict XVI asked in Fatima becomes as touching as ever: "Who awaits the dawn of the new day fanning the flame of faith?"

If you await top notch performances or any feast for the eyes, you had better not be misled. Yes, pleasant cinema is something precious, undoubtedly, but there is no room for that here. That is not where the movie's strength lies. It dwells in all that God loves most, in humility of the ignored and mocked by those who "sacrifice all that was most sacred on the altar of petty and selfish interests (Benedict XVI). The heroes are "merest" children: Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, not the learned, the brave, the clever ones. They represent the innocence of the world that has ceased to exist in so many of its fields, its contexts, its desires and motifs. They remind the world of God with their "faith-filled surrender into the hands of the Love which sustains the world" (Benedict XVI). But are they the highlights of the story? From the very start, any viewer, if believer or non-believer, will strive to figure out who the movie is about and who it is addressed at...

The film opens at Pontevedra in Spain in 1937, twenty years after the Marian Apparitions. Sister Lucia, the only surviving seer, writes down her memories according to the request of her superiors, the memoirs that are stored in her heart. With the vivid, yet mystical, foggy flashbacks, she becomes the sole narrator of the story. In this way, the whole depiction of the difficult content remains more analytical and more innate (if I dare say intimate spiritually). A great flashback!

In that depiction, a key aspect is cinematography. It appears to be an altogether splendid idea to shoot the movie mainly in black and white and use the color at the scenes of the supernatural! In this, the cinematography evokes the wondrous assumption here that could, otherwise, result in idealized awkwardness elsewhere. That is the fullness of joy, of beauty is solely in God. Where there is God and life of faith, all colors with sublime harmony shine brightly. This spiritual overtone executed in visuals becomes most evident at the climactic scene of the miracle of the sun. Consequently, the concrete medium that cinema is appears to grasp the mystical and spiritual, embrace the religious and prophetic standpoint in an austere manner. The supernatural, in many cases, resorts to mere naiveness, cartoon like kitsch, ridiculous illusions. Here, however, it is very authentic and genuinely shakes the perceptions of viewers. Many archive materials add certain sense of authenticity and documentary nature. They are, in a way, incorporated to the scenes and nicely evoke the atmosphere of the time.

Yet, nothing is 'apocalyptic' in the earthly sense of the word filled with fear and doom but in the 'Christian' sense of the word filled with hope. No prophets of doom! Do not expect them here and thanks be to God for that because that is nothing of what Fatima is all about. These events are not filled with darkness but, to the contrary, they are full of light. Yes, Light...let me make a brief note about one of the most significant aspects.

Bl. John Paul II in his homily during beatification of Jacinta and Francisco (2000) pointed out: "they (children) see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly." In one scene, we see the light that frames the entire screen and embraces the viewers. At that very moment, you feel to be the part of the movie.

Among the artistic strengths of the movie, a mention needs to be made of the memorable music score by Andrew Guthrie which does not rely so heavily on Fado but combines various elements of vibrant and contemplative tunes.

But let me state one thing clearly: there are no protagonists of the movie, it is a film about God's relation with humanity taking a historical example of humble children of Fatima. Very thought provoking, highly recommended!

On May 9th 1985 before the assembly of the Republic of Portugal in Lisbon, Ronald Reagan said: "in the prayers of simple people everywhere, simple people like the children of Fatima, there resides more power than in all the great armies and statesmen of the world." Merest children...how wondrous is the 'tactics of God' Certain that "each one of us is precious in 'Her' eyes" (Pope Francis), this medium contributes to 'the dawn of the new day' of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.