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.

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.

A wealthy orphan (an adult, but whose parents have died and is as yet, unmarried - so, in that period, unprotected) befriends another woman who has lost her husband and is now a homeless widow. Their relationship has lesbian elements - which of course are "beyond the pale" in the era; additionally, the friend is "horror of horrors" - a Lutheran - in other words - a heretic! And the orphan is wealthy... The Inquisition steps in soon enough and when the two women prove 'uncooperative'- this film pulls no punches. The film shows both how the two women are slowly but surely broken in graphic detail and, showing interviews the inquisitors have with various witnesses, also how the common beliefs of the time justified it. The torture is shown historically accurately being done to the women's totally nude bodies...

Many film were produced on behalf of the Holy Iquistion and their extremely brutal ways of obtaining a confession .... Most of them were exploring rather the side of the fault, the trial testimony, judgement, and finally, the punishment! They represented all of it, with very few torture scenes! Jac Avila brings us, with his film Maleficarum (2011), in the depths of dark dungeons and explore more thoroughly the torments inflicted on the victims.

Each of the torture scenes are incredibly realistic and the acting is excellent and especially that of Amy Hesketh.

The story of two women in love with each other, falsely accused facing the Holy Inquisition .... A must see movie ....

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