Movie Review: Bakhita: From Slave to Saint

Date: 2009

Director: Giacamo Campiotti

Summary: Bakhita has a good life in Sudan until she is captured by slave traders.  She grows to womanhood in captivity until her life changes again when Federico Marin – a Venetian merchant – brings her home to Italy.  Though legally free, Bakhita works as a slave in Marin’s household, suffering physical and verbal abuse from her “master” and superstitious hatred from the other villagers.  But she finds joy in Marin’s daughter, Aurora, and in the Christian faith she has never heard of before.  When Bakhita decides to claim the freedom she deserves – the freedom to shape her own life and to serve God as she chooses – she challenges her neighbors and her adopted family to open their hearts to God and to the dignity of all humanity.

Review: This film is based on the story of St. Josephine Bakhita, who lived during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000.  Though many of the basic facts of the saint’s life are present in the movie, the filmmakers were not attempting to make a biography and they took a considerable amount of creative license.  The result is a truly moving film that captures the heart of Bakhita’s story.

The movie addresses several meaningful themes.  The more prominent ones are racism and slavery, but there is a larger social justice aspect that involves a money-minded Marin and his struggling tenant farmers.  Just as powerful is the story of the parish priest, who finally finds his courage to be a true disciple of Christ when he chooses to fight for Bakhita.

Bakhita is the true center of the story, however.  One of the most remarkable features of her character is her sense of joy.  Even when she has no friends, no kind words from anyone, she is the only one singing.  She is the one who cares for Aurora out of love, and not duty.  She has a quiet confidence that seems impossible to shake.  She is so used to people abusing her that she is no longer afraid of it.  She doesn’t exactly accept that she’s a slave – since she does eventually fight for her freedom – but she is clearly unimpressed by threats.  When she hears the story of Christ’s sacrifice and love for the first time, she silently challenges the rest of us to see it as clearly and as simply, and to follow his example as powerfully as she did.

Note: The audio for this film is in Italian.  English subtitles are available. 

Movie Review: Brother Sun, Sister Moon

Date: 1972
Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Summary: Francis returns to his home of Assisi after contracting a fever in the army.  He experiences a religious conversion that inspires him to reject the lavish lifestyle of his family and attempt to draw closer to God through nature and poverty.    His newfound joy attracts many of the city's youth to him, but the powerful of Assisi resent the rebuke to their materialism and vow to stop Francis at any cost.

Review: Brother Sun, Sister Moon is a cinematic masterpiece that attempts to transfer to the viewers some of the quiet joy St. Francis experienced through God's presence in nature.  Gorgeous photography, sweeping scenes of fields of flowers and snowy mountains, moments of silence and moments of song all combine to present the story of St. Francis with a beauty so powerful that it can touch hearts even if some find it a little hokey.

I admit that when the film began, I did not react favorably.  Some factors such as costuming or even the soundtrack may prove jarring to a more modern audience.  We are, after all, accustomed to art that makes us forget it is art and invites us to live within its story line.  Here, however, the gaudy outfits never let viewers forget their nature as costumes and the soundtrack seems like it belongs on a flashback to the 60s CD.  Initially I had expected the type of music St. Francis might have heard, but clearly Zeffirelli's concerns lie less in maintaining historical accuracy than in using art to make a statement about his culture: the music draws parallels between St. Francis's love of nature and the environmental movement of the 60s.

I might have accepted these issues, but the portrayal of St. Francis also surprised me.  I have always imagined St. Francis as a fearless man of action, a man whose deciveness and passion shocked a nation.  This is after, all the man who tore off his clothes before the bishop and the town in order to announce his desire to live in poverty for the glory of the Lord.  Zeffirelli's interpretation, however, shows a quieter, more introspective man.  Perhaps he wanted audiences to feel like the inhabitants of Assisi.  Perhaps he wanted audiences to question, like the characters, whether St. Francis wasn't quite simply made.  Ultimately, however,  I think some of the problems I had with the portrayal lies in the impossibility of expressing or illustrating the presence of God.

Every saint movie I have ever seen relies on silence to convey the presence of God within a person.  And why not?  God's presence is ineffable. However, when I think on the people in my life in whom I have distinctly felt the presence of God,  I don't recall them serenely staring off into the distance smiling to themselves or looking past me when I talk because they're just so in love with the Lord they can't see me.  I think that when a person is in tune with God, they become more present to those around them--not less so.  Thus, I had trouble accepting a portrayal of St. Francis in which he ignored people when they spoke to him.  I accepted him only when I saw the camaraderie he had with his brothers and the service he extended to the poor and afflicted.  St. Francis only became real when he connected with the world around him.

The heart of the film lies in that--lies in the presence of St. Francis in Italy.  He was a real man who walked on real soil and managed to transform the way people understood religion and spirituality.  He continues to inspire countless people today.  And why?  Because if an ordinary man like him could do something so extraordinary, it means that all of us have the potential to become saints.  Brother Sun, Sister Moon shines brightest when it shows St. Francis looking into the eyes of the people around him and reminding them that God desires them.