Holy Emy

Fusing genres can yield captivating stories and even more intriguing films. But getting the mix right is tricky business. Like a chef specializing in fusion cuisine, a filmmaker attempting something comparable must carefully combine elements to get the perfect amount of each in his/her cinematic recipe. Unfortunately, that's where the debut feature from writer-director Araceli Lemos goes off the rails. This story of two adolescent Filipino sisters living on their own in Greece after their mother returns home follows the divergent paths they each follow when it comes to forging their own lives, especially in their respective religious/spiritual paths. However, in an ambitious attempt to combine a coming of age tale with one infused with fundamentalist religion, alternative spirituality and alleged horror themes, the filmmaker can't quite figure out where the story should go, what to emphasize or what to include/exclude. While some of this might be conveniently attributed to the coming of age time of life being an inherently confusing one, that seems like pale cover for a narrative that simply tries to incorporate too much and doesn't combine its various aspects in a coherent, focused screenplay. To be sure, the effort to try something different with these genres (especially as a fusion) is to be commended, but the result just doesn't quite cut it in the end. Viewers are likely to end up frustrated that the picture doesn't serve up the kind of fare that could have made this a compelling watch in more skillful and experienced hands. For now, though, audiences will have to settle for one of those "what might have been" offerings.

I thought it was a girl's mind like hummingbird. I didn't expect it to be completely different. Girls shed blood, religious rituals, baby sacrifices, and tell the growth history of a pair of girls in a way close to cut films. Coupled with the identity of immigrants, it is worth pondering.

Psychic surgery and faith healing. Not your everyday topic in the movies. This film is exuberant. For better or worse. There is an intoxicating dramaturgical and emotional magic that lasts all the way through. The multilingualism adds a lot. But not the music. It becomes a burden.

Still, the film puts me in a mood, a delirium tremens kind of condition, that is difficult to interpret. Kind of like psychic surgery. Harmful or healthy?

It is a good plot for a movie. The inmigrant compound, as well as the religious and the medcal one is quite a good mixture that bulds up a story that won't leave you indifferent. I also liked a lot the music and the acting for me was convincing, although I couldn't sympathise with any of the characters.

On the other side, it's too long, or maybe poorly structured. There are a lot of things that happen in the film that end up being not relevant, take a lot of the screentime and are even left unfinished and unsolved. We have a lot of these pointless sides of the story, and in the end this worsens the film and makes it more boring.

Is it worth watching? Well, it has some interesting features, specially its cultural aspects, but it isn't a very good movie.and I wouldn't recommend it, there are better ways to spend two hours.

The film is good, the direction competent, the performances excellent, but to believe that a baby is born with a fishbone in its esophagus is asking a lot of credulity from the spectator. This kind of movie that endorses this kind of irrational belief does humanity a disservice. Ladies and gentlemen: This is a fraud. There are no such "psychic powers".

Here in Brazil, several of these healers have been unmasked, the most famous of them, Zé Arigó did the same type of "spiritual operation" that the character does in the film. This is fraud. And not to show that in the movie is to prove a fraud.