Lucia’s Grace: an Italian film for Eco Warriors
Italian director Gianni Zanasi has combined the appearance of the Virgin Mary with a strong eco-warrior message in his delightful new film Lucia’s Grace (Troppa grazia), a kind of hymn to environmentalists everywhere. This gentle tale of a single mother struggling to decide as to whether she should act on messages which appear to her, in the shape of the Virgin Mary, should warm the hearts of audiences everywhere.
The central character of the film is Lucia, a land surveyor and single mother, beautifully played by Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, who with her professional colleague has been asked to do a routine survey for an area earmarked for immediate development. During the process of taking the measurements, Lucia notices that the map is completely incorrect and any new development on the site could actually be dangerous. Added to this is the appearance of a strange woman who mysteriously shows up on the very site which Lucia is meant to be measuring. She initially thinks the woman is homeless and tries to find a way to help her. Only gradually does it dawn on her that there is something a bit odd about her as the woman insists that a church should be built there.
Zanasi, the film’s director, stated at a recent screening in London during the capital’s Made in Italy film festival that the idea wasn’t something which came gradually, “It was one of those cases where the idea of the film came to me simply all in one go. Normally you pigeon hole this kind of film as being a woman’s story or a crisis of faith but stories have their own logic. Even talking about mainstream cinema like Jurassic Park, the core story is in fact quite different. Like Inception, behind the core idea something else hides.”
What is hiding behind this tantalizing concept is a passionate argument for us to question our obsession with development. An encouragement to look past the lure of immediate financial rewards, to look to see what may be lost in the process.
Alba Rohrwacher is absolutely fantastic in the central role of Lucia and we watch as she struggles to work out if the visions she’s seeing are real or a sign of an impending breakdown. On paper this may not appear funny but in Zanasi’s capable hands it is hilarious but also carries with it a very serious message. He states “The main protagonist is a normal woman who is a surveyor in a field with strong links to her childhood. As she takes the measurements she notices the anomalies and raises them with the project head. But when she goes along with the deception she betrays her links to the land.” The fact that Rohrwacher is Italian was crucial to her being cast, says Zanasi, “It was so important to cast someone who does in real life have those links; it makes the film in the end much more real.”
The character of the Virgin Mary is played by acclaimed Israeli actress Hadas Yaron and casting someone who was not steeped in the Christian faith was crucial to Zanasi, “I wanted someone who would not give me a classic Mary but someone who would bring to this character a fresh approach and I found that Yaron did this. She didn’t really know that much about this rarified biblical figure and as a result she approached playing her in a completely fresh, irreverent way.”
Yaron creates a Virgin Mary who is not above gentle violence when she feels her voice is being ignored. One of the stand out moments in the film is when Lucia attends a party to celebrate the development’s success and is confronted by a very angry Virgin Mary who feels her voice is not being heard. Guests celebrating in the garden witness Lucia apparently running from one side of the sitting room to the other and assume that she is just having a very bad day so therefore is behaving rather oddly. Through Lucia’s eyes we see an uncharacteristically aggressive Virgin Mary literally dragging Lucia across the floor.
The Italian actor Elio Germano plays Lucia’s loving, patient and ultimately understanding ex-husband. He is the only one who believes her.
What makes Lucia's Grace such a lovely film is that it is very open about whether these visions of the Virgin Mary are indeed real or not but the message she brings with her is an important one, which is to think twice about paving over our rural landscape, since in the process of doing so we just might be unwittingly destroying our history.
Film director: Gianni ZanasiFollow Us
