The daughter of Margarito Duarte, a modest judicial employee of a small Colombian town, dies suddenly at the age of 7. 12 years later, when the body was exhumed, the girl’s remains remain intact. Margarito Duarte with the help of the people begins a process to get to Rome and ask the Pope for the sanctification of his daughter.
Director: Lisandro Duque Naranjo. AKA Miracle in Rome
Writers: Lisandro Duque Naranjo, Gabriel García Márquez.
Stars: Frank Ramírez, Gerardo Arellano, Amalia Duque García, Santiago García, Enrique Buenaventura, Lisandro Duque Naranjo, Humberto Dorado, Daniel Priolett, Georgio Antei, Alexandra Cardona.
Wonderfully unique low-budget film from Colombia, 2/3rds of it shot in Rome, about a father’s love and devotion to his 7-year-old little daughter Evalia, who expires in the opening minutes, but is found 12 years later upon exhumation to be “incorrupt.” (See Joan Carroll Cruz’s book The Incorruptibles about Catholic saints & beata whose relics did not decay for decades or centuries.) All the locals are convinced she’s a saint and fly him and Evalia’s relic to Rome in hopes of getting the Vatican bureaucracy to declare her Colombia’s first saint.
Very poignant film . . . even for an atheist!