Europe is not only a perfectly bureaucratized secular society – in the rush for a quick solution to the ills plaguing civilization, many return to the tradition of Catholic mysticism. This intriguing observational documentary demonstrates that exorcism isn’t merely a curiosity of the pop-culture canon but a service demanded by the masses.
Europe is not only a perfectly bureaucratized secular society – in the rush for a quick solution to the ills plaguing civilization, the West is capable of accepting succor from any quarter. This intriguing observational documentary demonstrates that exorcism isn’t merely a curiosity of the pop-culture canon. The filmmaker’s project sprang from the statistical growth in the demand for exorcism in Italy, France, Spain, and the USA after the turn of the new millennium. For many, though numbering among the lukewarmest of believers, it offers hope of a return to the tradition of Catholic mysticism and demonology. Exorcism is considered by the participants as a last chance, the last refuge when everything secular and rational has failed. The director’s perceptive viewpoint portrays the existence of possession as a reality for the afflicted that is attended to by dedicated exorcists. There is no attempt whatsoever to cast a critical eye; the need to exorcise demons is respectfully interpreted as a social phenomenon, as a new form of therapy. The picture won the Orizzonti section at Venice.
Vít Kořínek
90 min / Color, DCP
Director Federica Di Giacomo
/ Screenplay Federica Di Giacomo, Andrea Sanguigni
/ Dir. of Photography Greta De Lazzaris, Carlo Sisalli
/ Editor Aline Hervè, Edoardo Morabito
/ Producer Francesco Virga, Paolo Santoni
/ Production MIR Cinematografica, Rai Cinema
/ Coproduction Opera Films, France 3 Corse ViaStella
/ Sales True Colours
Federica Di Giacomo (La Spezia, Italy) graduated in anthropology from the University of Florence before studying creative documentary filmmaking in Barcelona. There she cooperated on scripts for films by Joaquín Jordà and Núrie Villazán (Monkeys Like Becky / Monos como Becky, 1999) and José Luis Guerín (Under Construction / En construcción, 2001). She debuted in 2000 with the documentary Los colores de la trance, and since 2001 she’s mainly worked in television. Her doc focusing on life in the underbelly of Matera, Italy, The Grotesque Side of Life (Il lato grottesco della vita, 2006), earned her the CIPPUTI and Avanti Awards at Torino and had plenty of festival exposure, as did her next picture Housing (2009). Liberami is the filmmaker’s third feature-length movie, earning her and co-writer Andrea Sanguigni the Solinas Award (Premio Solinas) in 2014 for the screenplay. In addition to making movies, she also teaches documentary filmmaking at schools in Milan and Rome.
True Colours
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