Lourdes is a small town in the south of France where all colors and pains blend together, to which thousands of pilgrims converge daily since the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, 160 years ago. Documentary film Lourdes is an anthropological theatre where moving stories merge with the raw and naked nature of humanity. Through six pilgrims’ prayers, facing void, facing death, facing illness, the film shows that the true miracle is faith itself.
A stunningly beautiful mountainous village in the Southwest foothills of the Pyrenees went from a sleepy scenic town to a sacred wonder after 1858, when a 14-year-old peasant girl claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a remote grotto. Today, the town is second only to Paris in the number of annual visitors (6 million), part venerated shrine, part Disneyland (shops selling bottled holy water and Virgin Mary-related tchotchkes). Vast processions of people seeking a miracle fuel a small army of care-givers who accompany them. These pilgrims are a surprising cross-section of humanity: accident victims, the terminally ill, an overweight and bullied teenager, a contingent of aging Paris prostitutes, et alia. LOURDES is an insightful meditation on the human capacity for empathy and hope, and the mystery of religious faith in the face of profound tribulation.
