This movie is stunning by convening so much magic with such reduced means. Filmed on almost no budget, it was made on 16mm on location in Sicily, with local actors all dressed in plain grey clothes. The story is about a saint who searches for a sinner, his necessary complement. Jesus appears on TV, giving weather forecasts, and in the end, the group of saints all speak with the same voice.
All the effects are done in the most simple of ways; the appearance of an angel is represented only by the actors shadow. In one scene, the saint enters a picture painted by his sinner - simply an empty frame suspended in mid-air - to reach a dream landscape, meeting a talking horse that claims to be a mountain, saying that in this dream mountains look like horses.
It is Ruiz' profound knowledge of the nature of film that enables him to create mysticism and a sense of wonder by just combining simple images and adding wonderful dialogue. So many people thinking it takes a helluva lot of FX to make dreams visible are disproved by this made-on-a-shoestring film.
All the effects are done in the most simple of ways; the appearance of an angel is represented only by the actors shadow. In one scene, the saint enters a picture painted by his sinner - simply an empty frame suspended in mid-air - to reach a dream landscape, meeting a talking horse that claims to be a mountain, saying that in this dream mountains look like horses.
It is Ruiz' profound knowledge of the nature of film that enables him to create mysticism and a sense of wonder by just combining simple images and adding wonderful dialogue. So many people thinking it takes a helluva lot of FX to make dreams visible are disproved by this made-on-a-shoestring film.
