Maleficarum

Maleficarum (2011) by Jac Avila is a good screen play by an independent Bolivian film company. It is a good historical fiction loosely based on María Francisca Ana de Castro, a Spanish immigrant to Alta Peru, who was renowned for her beauty and wealth. She was arrested and accused of "judaizing". After many days of Torture before confessing; She was burned at the stake in 1726. This event was a major spectacle in Lima, but it raised questions about possible irregular procedures and about the corruption within the Inquisition, this lead to the end of The Holy Office (The Inquisition) in Peru. The director, Jac Avila, and actors try to recreated the actual realistic suffering in great detail of what the victims of the Spanish Inquisition had to endure. The best was the director's use of the actors' facial and body language, it was very cerebral and visual at the same time. This viewer marveled at the simplicity of that movie and how it got its complex message across, the script and the story plot was very well thought out. The dialogs of the accusers and witnesses did well in showing the bias and superstitions of that time.

To Parents Who Read Info About This Movie Please Read This Since I Cannot Put Anything On The Parental Advisory Part Of This Movie This Movie Contains Graphic And Explicit Scenes Which May Not Be Suitable To All Viewers VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

I Have Been Since Yesterday Watched A Free Version Of Maleficarum Starring Amy Hesketh And Mila Joya As They Faced Inquisition I Think Mila Joya Should Have Gotten The Same Amount Of Torture As Hesketh But In Spite Of This I Think Its Really Good And Very Realistic I Like To Watch It Over And Over Again In Short I High Recommend It On A Scale Of One To Ten I Give It A Eight Or In The Words Of Ebert And Roper Or Siskel And Ebert I Give It Two Thumbs Up Or In The Words Of Some Other Movie Critic I Give It Four Stars

And In My Book This Movie Is Rated R For Graphic Violence Nudity Sensuality And Adult Situations

This is arguably one of the best "Inquisition movies" ever made. Not because it can directly compete with bigger budget productions, but, on the contrary, despite being a low-budget film, it nicely exploits the movie-making art at its best to really convey the idea of what the Inquisition was. We know that most of these movies, more often than not, were made mostly as an excuse to show naked beautiful ladies under distress. More like a kind of BDSM movie sub-genre. As such, they don't really delve too much into the specifics of *why* such things happened, and often times, *how* these inquisitions were actually conducted. Lame plots are often the norm. What I found most remarkable about this movie is that it portrays the violence within a well-documented and researched historical context, thus in a way justifying the torture scenes. The audience has a unique opportunity to grasp the unimaginable degree of power, ignorance, and savagery from the ever-present Church, under which the people in those times spent their lives.

Amy's acting is really remarkable. I got really moved by the scenes where Mariana suffers for seeing what her love Francisca is enduring. These seem to be actual tears, and I felt it in my throat, no kidding. When they touch their hands, when Francisca lovingly strokes a broken Mariana on her lap, I really felt shaken by the love and suffering there. Amy also conveys the sense of actual pain under torture, which becomes unsettling after a while. I wish Mila could deliver the same degree of drama, but she falls a bit short on the task, especially when delivering a line. I also found Amy's accent a bit out of place, given the perfect (to me, a Portuguese speaker..) accent of the other actors. Of course, it is too much to ask that she should, besides all that she has done already, still speak perfectly non-accented Spanish, being born and raised in the US. Please, Amy and Mila, don't take this badly, I can only imagine what it is to perform that kind of role for an audience. Or just for the film crew. You both are brave beautiful actresses and deserve praise.

Also worth mentioning is Roberto Lopez's portrayal of the inquisitor. I was impressed by his delivery, especially in the initial scenes, of an apparently well-mannered, soft-spoken, and well-intended priest, which was as much interested in the heiress' wealth as in actually "saving" the accused. Along the interrogations, he seems dispassionate and not impressed by the suffering he is imposing on the victims. It dawned on me that it probably was the case indeed, for those church men, as everybody else in those times, lived in a magical world with very, very different values and world views than we live in today. We just cannot grasp, much less judge, what went inside their minds. Life and death were ranked very differently in those days than they are today for us. Inquisition movies usually portray the interrogators as plain evil creatures, but, after watching this movie, it seems to me that, as usual, things might not be so clear-cut (please don't take these remarks as a justification for anything!). Roberto's performance was probably much more on the mark than many.

Having seen the interviews and reviews, it really stand out to me some aspects of the production and direction: the care with the costume and prop design and making (Amy's work!), the quasi-documentary style that lends action to a plot line that would be otherwise too dry, the editing that makes up for the lack of camera movement. No doubt due to the cramped space in the dungeon, and lack of expensive camera gear such as dolly and crane for exterior scenes..

I was delighted to find that this is a Bolivian production. Being born and raised in South America myself, I know well how difficult it is to work under very limited budgets and oftentimes an uncooperative environment. I can only praise the film's entire crew for achieving such good quality in this movie.

Maleficarum is getting a lot of attention. This is a review that appeared online: "A pretty powerful and disturbing movie: Disturbing because the film doesn't really hold back in its many torture scenes, some of which are less than easy to stomach, but powerful because despite all the torture, the film manages to tell a rich story full of interesting characters, it manages to make the love between the two tortured girls who go through hell together rather than betraying one another, and the direction (successfully) aims for atmosphere rather than sleaze.

To put it shortly, a very nice, well-made film. Recommended – but for above reasons probably not for everybody." Mike Haberfelner (re)Search My Trash

This is a very remarkable film for its total restraint in depicting a story of extreme outrage. It brings associations directly to the Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer and his films, especially "The Day of Wrath" 1943, but maybe more specifically to "The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc", since this is also a close-up of the martyrdom of woman, in this instance even doubly so, since there are two. The story in itself is the ghastliest possible, the two young ladies prosecuted by the inquisition for forbidden love being tortured one by one while the other one is forced to look on in increasingly accelerating cruelty to extract a forced confession of witchery. When the confession finally is accomplished, they are subjected to no less severe punishment none the less in a total judicial murder, just because of the greed of the church to obtain the property of the one young ladý who from her parents has inherited the greatest fortune in Peru - this is somewhere around 1700. The film is accompanied all through by the most intimately pleasing chamber music, mainly guitar, which enhances the grotesqueness of the terror proceedings even more.

The director Jac Avila from Bolivia is also the writer and the producer of the film, and it is definitely a masterpiece, with the vital contribution of Amy Hesketh as the main victim - her acting is quite comparable with Maria Falconetti's in "The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc". Still, the torture scenes, that never cease to get worse and seem more endless each time, must make this film unbearable to many, and it's impossible for anyone, I think, not to look away more often than not. A masterpiece of a genius making a deep and lasting impression - an unforgettable film, that however you would not like to see again. The impression is too strong not to leave you almost as branded as the victims.