The sky is on the earth
The sky is on the earth
June 4, 1947. In Casanova Staffora, a small village in the Oltrepò Pavese mountains, the seven-year-old shepherdess Angela Volpini was looking after the cows, when suddenly someone raised her from behind her; Angela felt a body and turned around: she saw a beautiful and sweet woman who told her that she was Mary, Jesus's mother. The mysterious woman left her a message: "I have come to teach you the way to happiness on this land. Be good, pray and I will be the salvation of your country."
This relationship will be repeated almost continuously every fourth day of the month, until June 4, 1956. A phenomenon of extraordinary appearances that arrived to the headlines of the newspapers of the time and that has been completely forgotten nowadays.
Thanks to the mystical experience, Angela developped an original vision that transformed her into a reference point for a changing world. Her charm attracted intellectuals such as Pasolini, Sartre, Dalì, Le Courbusier and Togliatti. Angela's life intertwines with salient moments in the history of the twentieth century: the Second Vatican Council, the anti-Franco resistance, the Theology of Liberation, the movements of the year 1968... Angela still fights to spread the revolutionary message received from Mary.
Through the protagonist's voice and other witnesses, the use of unpublished personal archives and historical films, the documentary traces the life of Angela Volpini, investigating the originality of her mystical experience and her intertwining with the Great History.
Directed and producted by: Massimo Arvat
Production year: 2019
Written by: Nicoletta Polledro e Massimo Arvat
With:
Angela Volpini
Grazia Baroni
Lucia Feminis
Giovanni Prestini
Ferdinando Sudati
Luciana Volpini
Edited by: Lucio Viglierchio
Photography: Ned Burgess e Lucio Viglierchio
Sound engineer: Mirko Guerra
Sound design: Niccolò Bosio
Production consultant: Francesca Portalupi
Voice off: Gisella Bein
Music: Niccolo Bosio e Lidia Pujol
Translations: John Rugman
Administration: Luana Rao e Milena Zulianello
Biografilm Festival, 2019, Bologna
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