Peripatetic husband-and-wife filmmakers Jim and Kelly Watt add to their catalog of travelogues a tour of Costa Rica's spiritual side (Roman Catholic, overwhelmingly) and its landmark cathedrals and church properties.
Most early ecclesiastical buildings in old Costa Rica, being made of wood, no longer stand - earthquakes continue to be a problem for construction, we learn. The extant houses of worship that succeeded the colonial ones run the gamut from adobe and spartan designs, intended to center the religious on introspection and prayer, to the vast Basílica de Nuestra in Cartago. This grand structure is tied is a charming folk legend partially related here (a miracle involving a possibly perambulating statue is retold, but eliminating the saintly artifact's politically incorrect-in-the-USA name: "La Negrita"). An annual procession there draws a million pilgrims.
Other Iglesias are toured in the cities of San Jose, Escazu, Nicoya, and Naranjo, their styles ranging from neo-Gothic to Romanesque and Renaissance. One distinctive church, La Iglesia de Cañas, has a mosaic facade composed of millions of small tiles, a labor of love and faith from modern artist Otto Apuy.
All of this is narrated material, with the exception of one concluding interview (in Spanish with English dubbed over) with the groundsman of Santa Cecilia. He has spent decades turning the exterior of the church into an elaborate DIY topiary garden. It may give some viewers flashbacks to that classic of hedge-trimming nonfiction features, A Man Called Pearl.
This title is recommended for library shelves in the travel section, plus religion and architecture-themed film collections.