You don’t necessarily expect to see Harvey Keitel pop into a movie about the Marian apparitions seen by three small children in 1917 Portugal, but there he is, clad in black, cloaked in skepticism and asking tough questions about Our Lady of Fatima.
Spoiler alert: Keitel’s Nichols isn’t an early 20th century Portuguese detective. He appears in flash-forward scenes as a non-believer author working on a book about the visions and is interviewing the elderly and graceful Sister Lucia (the great Brazilian actress Sonia Braga) about her claims she and her two cousins were repeatedly visited as children by the Virgin Mary.
The bulk of this beautiful, moving and nuanced faith-based film from director Marco Pontecorvo is set in and around Fatima, Portugal, with Stephanie Gil turning in fine work as 10-year-old Lucia, who, with her younger cousins Jacinta (Alejandra Howard) and Francisco (Jorge Lamelas), is visited by the Virgin Mary (Joao Arrais), who tells Lucia she must pray hard and endure much suffering to help bring about the end of the war.
To say Lucia’s claims are met with doubt is an understatement. The well-meaning parish priest, Father Ferreira (Joaquin de Almeida), is convinced the children are lying and calls on the church hierarchy to come disavow these dangerous lies.
The town mayor (Goran Visnjic), worried the government will shut down the church, holds the kids for repeated and harsh questioning in an attempt to get them to admit they’re lying.
Even Lucia’s mother Maria (actress-singer Lucia Moniz, perhaps best known for playing opposite Colin Firth in “Love Actually”), tells her this madness must stop — even as dozens and then hundreds of faithful make the pilgrimage to Fatima to pray with Lucia, to witness her interacting with the Virgin Mary (whom they cannot see), to ask her for help in healing their loved ones and bringing their boys home safe from the war.
Once in a while, we flash forward to Nichols the author and Sister Lucia, who patiently answers the same questions she’s heard her entire life: Why would the Virgin Mary appear to three children in a poor village? Why would God want a 10-year-old girl to endure the ridicule and doubts of many adults in her own village? What was the true purpose of these apparitions? And did Lucia actually see the Holy Mother, or was it just a fantasy?
“Fatima” doesn’t try to convert the faithful any more than Sister Lucia outwardly tries to convert Nichols. (She might be hoping to see a glimmer of belief in his eyes before he says his goodbyes.)
We believe Lucia sees the Virgin Mary, but we also understand how the priest, the mayor and even the mother of this little girl literally can’t see what she sees.
Director Pontecorvo was director of photography on a handful of “Game of Thrones” episodes, and his gift for visual spectacle is put to excellent use here. The production values are first-rate, as are the performances.
In the flourishing genre of faith-based movies, this is one of the better efforts we’ve seen.
