Fatima: Based On The True Story

 

                    "Pray the Rosary everyday to obtain world peace." Our Lady of Fatima

The movie, Fatima: Based on a True Story was directed by Marco Pontecorvo and released to the public on April 24th, 2020. Although artistic license was taken, this movie is well-done: the cast, the acting, the costumes, etc. 

As far as recording the historical events accurately, this movie does a remarkable job while trying to fit all the events that happened in two hours. The main highlights with minor sub-plots are included-including the mayor's doubt in the faith and his wife's belief in the children, the brother of Lucia returning home from battle and the mother struggles with her own faith and what her daughter, Lucia, is revealing to her.  

The movie begins with the oldest child, Lucia (Stephanie Gil), hiding in a cave while she is visited by the Angel of Peace (Ivone Fernandes-Jesus), warning her of the war and showing her the pains and horrors that men inflict on each other, urgently asking Lucia to pray for peace.

This movie flashes forward to the to the future, where Lucia is now in a Carmelite convent and is being interviewed by a skeptic author (Harvey Keitel).  The skeptic asks her multiple questions, such as, "Why did God choose you, of all people?" To which the sister replied, "Because it was necessary." As the movie chronicles the lives of the young seers, and the disbelief of some of the people in the village, including Lucia's mother,(Lucia Moniz), the children demonstrate their faith with conviction that what they had seen and heard. The movie ends with the Miracle of the Sun, a quote from Albert Einstein(which seemed to be a little out of place), and pictures along with captions on what happened to Francesco and Jacinta, who died of the influenza epidemic and was later canonized by Pope Francis. Sister Lucia died when she was 97. 

I would recommend people watch the movie after they had done some research on Fatima first, just so they can notice some differences between the media and the history of Fatima. The book The True Story of Fatima by John De Marchi, I.M.C. would be an excellent source to start researching the miracle of Fatima and how the movie corresponds to the historical reality.