CEFERINO NAMUNCURÁ THE WAY TO HOLINESS

CEFERINO NAMUNCURÁ
THE WAY TO HOLINESS

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Written and directed by: Roberto Reppel Toubel Produced by: Edgardo Pabano Roberto Reppel Toubel Executive Producer: Edgardo Pabano
Photography: Roberto Reppel Toubel
Sound: Leonardo Carvi Eduardo Sánchez Sebastián González Editors: Edgardo Pabano Roberto Reppel Toubel Original Music:ˇAldy Balestra Production companies: 1127 films & Reppel Toubel Producciones

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Genre:

DOCUMENTARY.

Formato:

HDV 720 25P Wide 16:9

language:

Spanish / Mapuche / Italian

Subtitles

Spanish / English

length:

FILM 85 minutes

TV version 48 minutes.

SOUND:

DVD/FILM 2.0 - 5.1

TV version Stereo

The Film
This historical – testimonial documentary, declared "of Cultural Interest" by Congress, which was selected for the Festival de Lima 2010 and received a Special Mention at the Film Festival Niepokalanów, Poland,tells the whole story of Ceferino Namuncura´s life (1886 – 1905), a young Mapuche who is believed to have miraculous healing powers.
Its director, Roberto Reppel Toubel (three times winner of Martin Fierro Awards), uses the words of relatives, specialists, historians, priests, and presents the unprecedented stories of the protagonists of such miracles. Since the Conquest of the Desert until the return of his remains to his family in 2009, “Ceferino Namuncurá, the Way to Holiness” is the most complete and updated documentary about this topic. After the defeat in the military campaign called Conquest of the Desert, the Mapuche people painfully adapts to its new reality of poverty and isolation. However, still young, Ceferino decides to do something to change the fate of his people; so, he asks his father, Indian chief Manuel Namuncurá, to send him to Buenos Aires to study, in order to be able to come back and “be useful to his people". His short life does not enable him to achieve his goals. Although some years after his death, from being the son of the most feared “Lonco” (aborigine chief) from the Patagonia, he turned to be worshipped by the same society that defeated his father.

Production Notes:
The film took six years to finish (2004-2009) considering research, filming and edition. This was due, mainly, to the fact that, as the filming was carried out, the producers learnt that there would be a series of important events for the story, such as the Beatification, the restitution of the remains to the family, the possibility to interview Valeria Herrera personally (she is the woman over whom The Church accepted the miracle that enabled the beatification), and the secret exhumation of Ceferino´s remains, for which the documentary shows exclusive images, as no other camera was allowed in the place. As regards the secret exhumation, we must highlight the unexpected openness of the Salesian Congregation, led by the idea to make this historical document last.
Although the documentary was declared of Cultural Interest by the Congress, did not receive any financial support from the National State.
In spite of dealing with a religious topic, this production has not received any kind of financial aid from the Catholic Church or any related organization, either.
So we can say it is a completely independent production.
It was filmed along three Argentine provinces- Buenos Aires, Neuquén and Rio Negro, and Capital Federal; over 20,000 km were covered by land and more than fifty interviews, were held, in part, thanks to the help in lodging and fuel provided by some City Halls and Provincial States.
The film lacks a scripted narrator. The story is carried out through the interviewees´ voices, due to the producers´ idea of not contaminating the spectators with ideas that can be interpreted in opposite ways.

Copyright 2010/2011 11 27 films. All rights reserved

SEE TRAILER

Ceferino Namuncurá died at the age of 18 in Tiber, Italy. Since then, thousands of miraculous healings have been attributed to him, which lead to his Beatification by the Catholic Church. He was the son of the Chief Mapuche Manuel Namuncurá and his captive white woman, Rosario Burgos. He spent his life under the custody of the Salesian priests and was a devout Catholic. This native teenager was influenced both by the white man and by the Mapuches and that for many was a saint, for others a traitor, and some just an innocent, is still used by some and others with the most diverse purposes. But what did Ceferino really think and feel? Which were his wishes? What did he expect for his own life and for his people? Why did such a popular cult to his image start after his death, moving thousands of persons from the same society that fought against his people?

Why a film about Ceferino Namuncurá?