Deciding to start watching a documentary observing a
present-day Sicilian exorcist at 12:47 in the am might not have been the best
decision, I thought to myself, as the film Libera
Nos (Deliver Us) begins.
The movie opens with a scene in a church. A person, back to the camera, kneeling in
front of an altar, is approached surreptitiously by a robed priest; as soon as
the priest puts a hand on that unknown individual’s head, there begins a fit of
the most loud, uncontrolled, blood-curdling and inhuman screaming you have ever
heard.
Libera Nos is an
Italian-French co-production. The film
is directed by Frederica Di Giacomo, a filmmaker I have been previously unaware
of, but intend to pay attention to now. Libera Nos won the Horizons competition
at the 73rd Venice Film Festival.
The exorcisms of Sicilian Franciscan Father Cataldo Migliazzo are
depicted onscreen.
The best documentaries, in my opinion, are those that involve
as little manipulation by the director as possible; they allow action to unfold
onscreen with minimal interference. They
are bare-bones: this includes lack of narration, computer graphics, clever
editing, etc. As a result, viewers are
forced to draw their own conclusions on what they have just seen in the purest
way.
What you see is what you get Libera Nos: we, the audience, forget that we are watching a movie,
such is the minimal intrusiveness of the documentary crew filming this
picture. We get an up-close and personal
depiction of Father Cataldo, as well as those unfortunate individuals dealing
with anxieties they, and others, classify as possession.
As a Catholic Christian, the topic of the ancient ritual of exorcism
holds a certain fascination with me. At
the same time, I consider myself a rational person, interested in psychology and
related scientific phenomena. What I
particularly take note of in this film regarding the intersection of faith and
science, is the conscious decision of the filmmakers of Libera Nos to highlight the care those religious individuals
involved in exorcisms take to rule out psychological causes of the disturbances
of those individuals afflicted with possession.
Father Cataldo and other religious are shown multiple times asking
victims and their families if the afflicted has ruled out psychological
disturbance/is seeking psychological treatment.
An excellent overview of the movie, as well as an
informative interview with the film’s director, can be found here at the
website of The Hollywood Reporter:
