Synopsis
The rock of the Lourdes grotto has been caressed by tens of millions of people who have left the imprint of their dreams, their expectations, their hopes and sorrows. At Lourdes, all frailties and all forms of poverty converge. The shrine is a refuge for pilgrims who expose themselves, both literally – in the pools where they immerse themselves undressed – and figuratively – in this direct, almost carnal relationship with the Virgin.
A word from Tënk
Since the famous Marian apparitions that appeared before a young peasant girl near the grotto of Lourdes in 1858, the Catholic Church has recorded 70 miracles that occurred in this place. A very small figure considering the millions of pilgrims who come each year to pray there, carried by faith and inhabited by the hope of a better life. Many are called but few are chosen, in the lottery of miracles…
Here, one does not escape the shackles imposed by the institution, nor does one escape commercial recuperation – all the unimaginable by-products are sold there, up to the water of this cave that is drained by the gallon. If it is easy to look at this place of religious tourism with condescension, the view of the filmmakers here is quite different. They capture the importance of the ritual, the sense of the sacred, the links between caregivers and patients, the exchanges and complicity that bring comfort, consolation and respite. Lourdes becomes, for a short time, a compendium of humanity where all the sufferings meet, and all the joys too. A film full of humility that offers us a privileged access to the intimacy of these people in search of appeasement. Although it does not make us believe in miracles, Lourdes reveals the – almost visceral – need for human beings to allow themselves to believe in them.
Jason Burnham
Tënk's programming coordinator
