A documentary charting the life of an Italian priest who is also an ordained exorcist Father Cataldo. Once seen as an archaic and regressive component of the faith, it has become renewed and reinvigorated.Italy has seen a rise in their work. From dwindling numbers to a two fold increase year on year (Now that is from 6 to 12 and these statistics cover only two years) but the trend is worrying enough to be of concern to the Catholic Church. His work takes in many walks of life and sees him supporting many hundreds of families with something that could be a majorly traumatic event. From single mothers who have headaches and can’t sleep, through to young boys that don’t want to go to school and act out to stop them from going. By way of young men whose mothers are frightened for what is happening to them, to older people who just feel utterly odd and uneasy with the world and themselves within it. Cataldo performs not only a role to sanctify the person, removing satan or the demons from them and freeing them but he also acts as pastoral advisor. Given advice, consul and direction to some. Others he is simply allowing for them to speak freely for the first time.
A hit at the Venice film festival, where it won best film, this was a documentary sensation on its release. Deliver Me is a stark look at a subject that could and often because of its history in cinema and society, become sensationalized. As a Catholic (Going to church every week for my sins!) I was concerned. You see the subject in the main church is seen as a little dubious and has been pushed out to the fringes. Which means that the extreme groups jump on this as a viable and frankly absurd connection to faith. Deliver Me could go one of two ways. One is to give voice to the fringes. The other is that it would mock them openly and make victims of vulnerable people. However, this is not the case. The story of Father Cataldo shows the power of a priest who is working for a belief and for a congregation. He wants to support his flocks and not to preach or leverage illicit works from them. Often he becomes a figure of hope in a world of despair. He becomes a voice of comfort in a world that is both absurd and deeply destructive to the human soul.
Deliver US balances the work of the Father, with the lives of the people he is working with. The lives here art central. It is handled with a reserved footing which allows the audience to engage with the events they see but also to rationalise why they happen. Often it is the lack of centre in the modern world that drives people away and often is actually more to do with mental health than spiritual. Psychology can be applied to discuss why and how people act as they do and this is also hinted at but not seen as the main focus. That is the work of a person trying to bring light into a world that can be so dark for its most vulnerable.
DELIVER US (Liberami) is in cinemas 27th October and on DVD 30th October #DELIVERUSFILM
