My “spiritual affinity” with the great director Pupi Avati dates back many years now. I have always greatly appreciated the delicacy and ordinariness of the themes explored in his films, but I probably also began to recognize in his art certain traits and a vision of life and humanity very similar to my own.
I also discovered that we both have extensive experience in scouting, and this educational method has probably left deep traces in both of us.
That is why last Sunday I went to the cinema to see his new film, released on May 4: The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, a title that had already piqued my curiosity.
For about two hours, I watched the story of a life unfold: that of Marzio Barreca, an unfulfilled and disillusioned musician, yet unable to compromise with life and still capable, after so many failures, of pursuing his dreams. His life inevitably becomes intertwined with that of the woman he loves and his fellow travelers. On screen, Avati brought me back to the Bologna of the 1970s and to the wounds each character carries: Marzio, the loss of a father who died too soon and the disappointment of a great love that ended; Sandra, his wife, the inability to love when one has not been loved; Samuele, the pain of losing a child and of a life lived only halfway…
But one of the scenes that moved me most, and that is so unusual to see in cinemas nowadays, is the one in which the protagonist, faced with a difficult diagnosis given to someone he loves deeply, goes to church to pray. The director lingers for a long time on the tabernacle.
In an interview with Agensir (www.agensir.it), Avati stated: «Once there were two of us, because Ermanno Olmi was there. Now I feel I am the only one left... Marzio, faced with this highly complex situation in which science reveals its limitations, reacts by entering a church to pray. He turns to the transcendent in search of consolation, help, someone to listen, and comfort. I asked the audience whether they remembered a recent film with a similar scene, but no one could answer. So I find myself thinking that I am some kind of exception.
The film also tells the story of a marriage being restored after 37 years: these are all elements that come from my background, from Catholic culture, values that are fundamental to me. And I continue stubbornly to present them, sometimes exposing myself to ridicule. Nevertheless, I believe I demonstrate a certain consistency by not giving in to the fashions of a “secular proselytism” that deprives people of the ability to sense that there may be something more. Science still cannot provide answers to the mystery of life and death. And I, too, always wonder whether I have managed to give meaning to my life».
He then added: «It is the “Sermon on the Mount,” “The Beatitudes,” the highest moment of the Gospel, which I reread every evening: it is my Constitution. It is the most beautiful thing there is, spoken by a young man two thousand years ago, showing how human beings should conduct themselves toward the world and their fellow human beings».
And I would say that, in this case too, I more than agree with him! I suggest you go see the film The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, a title chosen in honor of the day the director married his beloved wife, and be amazed by the work of this man who, like few others, knows how to delve into the souls of his characters and describe the longing for God and happiness that we all carry within us.
Barbara, an editor at Shalom Publishing House
