Two Suitcases

A brother/sister relationship frames this slender story about St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947), an African woman from Sudan who was sold into slavery, eventually found a new life as a Canossian Sister in Venice, Italy, and was ultimately canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. While the program attempts to dramatize Bakhita's charismatic life--caring for victims of World War I, offering spiritual succor to the poor and downtrodden, and so on--Two Suitcases' main action is dominated by the bickering skeptical brother and spiritual sister who revisit the places connected with Sr. Bakhita's Italian sojourn. While they consult Bakhita's memoirs or refer to her in anecdotes of questionable taste regarding her color from time to time, this program is--unfortunately--mostly about them as they follow in her footsteps, carrying the eponymous suitcases, which are intended as metaphors for the baggage of life (with the brother's wavering faith restored at journey's end). Overproduced and poorly dubbed from the Italian version, this is not recommended. Aud: P. (J. Reed)