On the sidelines of the film “Divinations”. And we refer to the feature film that is being screened in Agrigento these days. And we must immediately say that with intelligent and refined skills this feature film by Leandro Picarella from Agrigento, it seems to us that it aims to represent an updated picture of the socio-religious situation, especially in Sicily in general, but not only! Where – (it seems to me a bit everywhere!) – despite the technical-scientific-cultural progress in all fields, incredibly large pockets of irrational fideism remain, which leads to consult wizards and above all fortune tellers. The latter people who – as can be seen from the feature film – know how to do their job well. it would be a land somehow magical and even mysterious, whose inhabitants in difficulties immediately feel the need to resort to the mystery and seek help, unfortunately often, in the wrong way. This whole problematic, which not only at the Sicilian-Agrigento level, but also much more generally, also refers to the great questions debated today on the deepening of the ideas of anthroposophy, which some consider the safest way that can guide man. today to spirituality. And in the feature film the most concrete example of the wrong search is in that fortune teller who often largely dominates the scene, and who not infrequently dispenses and recommends bracelets which he always tries desperately in advance to provide himself, then dispensing advice for different cases, but in any case united by that psychological and human fragility, which, in need, always tends to seek help that hopefully can come from an occult and mysterious force. In this sense it is not difficult to discern that human anxiety that the great Augustine of Tagaste (354-433) spoke of in his time, who personally had also experienced it widely, that is, that restlessness of the human heart that does not find rest until when he does not really find the right outlet, which for him was the encounter with the man-God, Christ Jesus of Nazareth, announced in Milan by the great bishop Ambrose. The feature film also offers food for thought, because it can make one think, for example, of the “Trade of living” that complex work of fragmentary notes, thoughts, sensations, life travail, which, not finding the right outlet, ends with the suicide of the its author, Cesare Pavese on 27 August 1950.
Or to other modern works where the restlessness of the human soul abounds now in a tragic, now ironic tone, but always in a profoundly restless way, urging us to reflect on the true meaning of life, death and the soul.
In short, the feature film “Divinations” recalls what some of the most secularly enlightened today propose: that is, the deepening of the ideas concerning the so-called “Anthroposophy”that is, a philosophy which, by proposing itself to delve deeply into the human soul, is considered the surest way that can guide today’s man to spirituality, “as long as he wants it”.
And if the feature film in any way solicits all of this, we really hope it will be successful.