If we say that God’s kiss is a documentary about the Eucharist surely we imagine something that has little to do with what this film offers us. The reason is that the director did not want to capture a conventional catechesis with cinematographic pedagogy, but rather, as a graduate in Audiovisual Communication, he wanted to film an artistic and very personal work, without concessions to commercial demands. And who is this brave filmmaker? It is about Pietro Ditano, a young man with an Italian father and a Spanish mother who abandoned his studies at the same time as his faith to try to succeed in the world of fashion in Milan. But his restless Augustinian soul prevented him from stopping searching: he tried the Zen world, the spirituality new age, went to live with his girlfriend, indulged in high-class parties and luxury cars… until Armani slammed the door in his face and a sunk Pietro, like the prodigal son, returned to his father’s house begging for forgiveness. After this path of conversion to the Agustín de Hipona style, he resumed his audiovisual studies, which are now bearing fruit in this unique medium-length documentary on the Eucharist.
God’s kiss It is a cocktail shaker with many and varied ingredients. Naturally, the first of them is made up of very varied interviews, ranging from the highest to the most homely. Thus, together with the American theologians Scott Hahn, Ralph Martin and Mary Healy, we have very testimonial statements from the young Bea Morillo and Fer Rubio. Added to them are characters such as Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the novelist Tony Gratacós, the British Poor Clare Briege McKenna, the famous racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi, or the actor Pietro Sarubbi – who he became playing Barabbas in the film Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson–. Another element is the narrator, the Mexican convert actor Eduardo Verástegui, whose voice in off it connects the Eucharistic sacrifice with its Old Testament roots. This is probably the part that demands the most from the viewer. Thirdly, the film follows the pedagogical order of the Eucharistic liturgy, and for this the Spanish priest José Pedro Manglano explains the meaning of the different parts of the Mass, while we see him celebrate a Eucharist on a beach with a grandiose environment, as if it were a natural cathedral. The entire documentary is packed with spectacular images of nature in its purest state that indicate the connection between Christ, the center of the cosmos, and creation, redeemed and liberated with his blood.
Finally, in the film, a dramatized metaphor of the nuptial relationship between the soul and the Bridegroom, between the Church and Christ, which takes place during the Eucharistic celebration, is delivered to us in fragments. It is a very poetic, suggestive and open dramatization, played by the Majorcan actress Isabel Bonnín. In short, a risky film, which not everyone will like equally, but which has the merit of the expressive freedom of a convert who wants to share with the whole world the most valuable of his faith.
God’s kiss
Qualification Pending
The kiss of God. The Eucharist seen through the eyes of cinema and art – Alpha and Omega