DELIVER ME

Winner of the Orizzonti section at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival – Biennale di Venezia, the documentary Liberami by Federica Di Giacomo, produced by Mir Cinematografica with Rai Cinema, presents itself as a full immersion into the world of exorcism. A world, circumscribed to a small reality of Sicilian province, where Padre Cataldo reigns: an elderly exorcist considered a miraculous savior by the local people and neighboring areas. A man devoted to prayer and who sees Evil, obviously embodied in the infidels in the form of Satan, in every corner, in every thing, in every person. Even a pile of clothes arranged in a disorderly manner on a bed are a symbol of the Evil One for Padre Cataldo, the chaos generator of disorder and turmoil in the family. Thus, Padre Cataldo considers diabolical the conjugal crisis, resolving everything with rituals based on mere prayer, the help of some chaplains and maids who have become enemies of the devil. Federica Di Giacomo, in her intentions, presents several stories. The protagonists are a young tattooed and pierced man (for the servant of God close to the priest in question, symbols of Evil) irritable, a young girl from a bigoted family, a poor woman afflicted by her relationship and so on. Thus, the possibility of psychic disorders, neurosis or schizophrenia is avoided, in the words of Padre Cataldo simply disorders curable through water and salt and some crucifixes. No doctor intervenes and the only point of view is that of the most conservative and minimalist Catholic Church, which bases its existence on village life, the suggestion of the poor, complex people crushed by Catholic morality and who pour the boredom of the village and frustrations into a small church presided over by a known exorcist. But when one's self-esteem is lacking, then the devil puts his paw in, in a really simplistic representation (even stylistic) and without any pretension whatsoever, except to raise the question in the spectator that the 'liberating mass' weekly is nothing more than a staging. Religion lived as the only reason for life, exaltation of Christian thought and faith, perhaps the only true demon of these possessed, prisoners more than of the devil of themselves and their unconscious complexes. Failed with full marks!