Mary's Land

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Movie
German title Mary's Land
Original title Mary's Land
Country of production Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2013
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Juan Manuel Cotelo
script Juan Manuel Cotelo,
Alexis Martínez
production Simona Puscas
camera Alexis Martínez
cut Alexis Martínez

Mary's Land (Spanish also Tierra de María ) is a film released in Spain in 2013 that has also been broadcast in German since 2017. He deals with people who have changed their lives through the apparitions of Mary , especially in the context of Međugorje ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ).

action

The film begins as an agent thriller : The boss meets her agent and tells of a mysterious movement whose members worship a heavenly father, son and spirit and believe in a mother who is supposed to represent the connection between the heavenly leadership and the followers. They also believe that the whole world belongs to this God and that after death there is a resurrection. So the agent is hired to follow up this movement to see if it is credible or if its followers have been mistaken or brainwashed. In the course of this mission - caricatured to parodistically depicted - the zealous agent calls himself the devil's advocate . As a dossier, he receives a thick, old Bible and a short film version of it from his boss: It begins with God forming a baby out of a lump of clay, then living with Adam and Eve in a garden, an angel falling - and also abusing people their freedom by eating a forbidden fruit. Since then, God has tried to regain the love of human beings: He finally made the plan to be born a human being by Mary, preached, and was crucified for humanity. Mary stands up for people as an intercessor before God the Father.

Now the advocate's journey begins, in which he meets nine people and interviews them so that they tell of their life stories, in which they heard Mary's voice or were converted at a pilgrimage site. First he meets John Rick Miller in London , who was once a successful manager, but is now on the road as “God's ambassador”. In Bogotá he meets the former top model Amada Rosa Pérez, who was not happy despite a dream career and fell into a deep depression after an abortion ...

In Guadalajara , Mexico , Agent Cotelo visits the nurse Salvador Iñiguez, who gives prostitutes rosaries and pictures of the Virgin Mary, because they too experienced the love of Our Lady. Francisco Verar, the priest, also cares for poor children and young people who have experienced abuse and prostitution. In Washington, DC , he finally met the former abortion doctor John Bruchalski, who advised him, among other things, to travel to Medjugorje. Before the Devil lawyer visited Las Vegas applied to multiple sclerosis ill singer Lola Falana . In Padua he meets 17-year-old Silvia Buso, who has epileptic seizures and paraplegia - and nine months later she climbed the summit of Mount Križevac in Međugorje.

In the course of the film, the "agent" himself fades into the background in favor of his "interview partner" and at the end (in Međugorje) says that the further prosecution of the matter falls under "internal affairs". In the credits it is noted that the Vatican is still examining the apparitions of Medjugorje, but there is still no final judgment on the supernatural.

criticism

Overall, the documentary reports of the "interview partners" were appreciated. Other Marian apparition sites such as Fátima , Lourdes and Guadalupe are only marginal, as the focus is on Medjugorje.

“Mary's Land is an exciting, touching and humorous film. Superficially it's about the veneration of Mary, but actually the film is about God's longing for all his children and about the often unexpected and life-changing experience of his unconditional love. "

- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

distribution

Mary's Land premiered in Madrid in December 2013 , ran in a further 24 countries in 2014 and 2015, including the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Hungary, Brazil and Lithuania, and with great success. In Germany there was a preview in Neu-Ulm on January 27, 2017 and the premiere in Munich at the beginning of February. The film was shown in 210 German cinemas until December 2017, and was shown for the first time in Switzerland in September 2017. The film has been available on DVD (including 100 minutes of additional documentation) since December 2017.

Awards

  • 2014 (Spain): Nomination for the Cinema Writers Circle Awards (Best Documentary)

Web links

Databases
materials
Reviews and critiques

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Mary's Land . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 160288 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ "Mary's Land" will soon be in cinemas in Germany at de.zenit.org
  3. ↑ "Mary's Land" will soon be in cinemas in Germany at de.zenit.org
  4. ↑ Mary's Land in Germany on maryslandfilm.com, list of all participating cinemas, accessed on December 20, 2017.