Divinas palabras
Encyclopedia
Divinas palabras is a 1987
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....

 Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by José Luis García Sánchez
José Luis García Sánchez
José Luis García Sánchez is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed 30 films since 1968. He wrote for the 1973 film Habla, mudita, which was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival...

. It stars Ana Belén
Ana Belén
Ana Belén is the artistic name of María del Pilar Cuesta Acosta, a Spanish actress and singer. She was born on 27 May 1951 in Madrid.- Biography :...

, Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal , perhaps better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor born in Águilas, a small town in the province of Murcia, Spain....

 and Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias born Manuel María Arias Domínguez , is a Spanish actor and one off film director.Imanol Arias began his career with a travelling theatre group in Spain performing in the Basque Country of northern Spain. He debuted on TV in 1976 and his first film was in "Cecilia " of 'Humberto Solas'...

. The film is based upon the play by Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña , Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98, is considered perhaps the most noteworthy and certainly the most radical dramatist working to subvert the traditionalism of the Spanish...

. A Mexican film was realized in 1977 with the Mexican actress Silvia Pinal
Silvia Pinal
Silvia Pinal is a Mexican actress, who had roles in several of Luis Buñuel's movies such as El ángel exterminador and Viridiana...

, directed by Juan Ibañez.

Plot

The setting of the film is the province of Galicia, circa, 1920, in the impoverished village of San Clemente. Since the Village has no priest, ecclesiastic authority falls to Pedro Gailo, the sacristan, who has a young beautiful wife Mari Gaila. Greedy for any money that comes their way and eager to leave San Clemente and her husband, Mari cares for a hydrocephalus-stricken child and uses him to beg for alms. The child becomes the source of their wealth.

Comfortable in the joint guardianship of the child with her sister-in-law Marica, Mari Gaila, encouraged by another beggar woman nicknamed “la Tatula’, decides to go to various fairs and festivals and there puts the hydrocephalus dwarf on display, in order to wheedle funds from good-natured, pitying, sympathetic people. Her husband, Pedro, the sacristan, is afraid that Mari’s activities will ruin his reputation, but his love of money overcomes his fear and pride. Maria Galia sets out for the nearest city, confronting a world she never knew existed, full of music, cattle trading fairs and picturesque people. She becomes the object of desire of other nomad beggars like herself, especially shrewd tricksters like Septimio Miau.

Drawn sexually to this handsome outlaw, after a mild flirtation with him she leaves for home, loaded with money. The townspeople begin to gossip about her sudden wealth and freedom to leave the village at will. Mari Gaila meets up with Septimo again, teams up with him, using the hydrocephalus child as a freak exhibit, and decides to run off with him. While they are making love, the locals ply the hydrocephalus child with liquor at the local tavern, causing his death.

Septimo deserts Mari Gaila, who becomes ill and returns to the sacristan, empty handed. But Pedro Gailo uses his nephew’s corpse, showing off his gigantic member to families in other villages to make money. Later, Septimo returns and Rosa la Tatula acts as a go between. The lovers meet in a forest, consummate their affair and are caught by their jealous neighbors.

Disgraced, desperate and poor, Mari Gaila is striped nude, spat upon, mocked and stoned. The crowd ends its vengeance when Pedro, the sacristan, pronounces the “divine words" in Latin: “Let him who is free of sin cast the first stone”. These words in the midst of such squalor are ironic yet miraculous, causing the crowd to disperse and look into their own motives. They are downtrodden peasants caught in a claustrophobic world, scheming, dirty people with nowhere to go.

After the crowd leaves, Pedro maintains a saintly pose, forgiving his adulterous wife. Mari Gaila seems too clean and noble to have groveled in this squalor and comes off seeming almost saintly herself.

Cast

  • Ana Belén – Mari Gaila
  • Francisco Rabal – Pedro Gailo
  • Imanol Arias – Septimo Miau
  • Esperanza Roy – Rosa, LaTatula
  • Aurora Bautista - Marcia del reino
  • Juan Echanove – Miguelin , el padrones
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