Those of a certain age who are alumni of Catholic elementary schools may well remember the "Three Secrets" associated with Our Lady of Fatima, referring to a famous story about a vision of Mary, mother of Jesus, who appeared to three young shepherds in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. The child shepherds maintained that Mary appeared a half-dozen times, revealing apocalyptic events to come in our weary world. Filmmaker Andrés Garrigó’s Fatima: The Ultimate Mystery is a quasi-documentary curiously couched in a half-baked story about a film editor whose perspective on Christianity turns more positive after she is hired to construct a narrative about Fatima from raw footage. This film-within-a-film approach proves to be a major distraction from the powerful tale of the shepherds and the thousands who turned up hoping for a glimpse of Mary while she allegedly spoke to the children. A mix of archival materials, special effects, and staged re-enactments effectively convey the Marianist miracles, while some time is also spent on the lore surrounding Mary’s trio of messages. The big question for the Church in the second half of the 20th century concerned the secret content of the third message (the first two are said to have predicted world wars and Russian threats). Fatima clarifies the final secret that was revealed by the Vatican in 2000, which is vague enough that one can attach anything dire to it. Optional. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)
Fatima: The Ultimate Mystery
(2017) 80 min. DVD: $19.99. Virgil Films (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. Volume 33, Issue 4
Fatima: The Ultimate Mystery
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