Seeing the credits fade on the very interesting The Mushroom Speaks (2021-also reviewed) I decided to continue my viewing of the WOW Film Festival line-up, by making it a double bill and meeting Liborio.

View on the film:

Joining the other followers by walking up the mountain, co-writer (with Pablo Arellano) Nino Martinez Sosa makes his feature film directing debut by closely working with cinematographer Oscar Duran In attempting to build a sense of realism, with the extensive use of filming in natural light.

Whilst the ambition is clear, the final result sheds no light at all, with the decision to shoot in real locations at night with only real fire about a mile away offering any natural light, making it near impossible to make out what is taking place.

Not helping matters at all, the screenplay by Sosa and Arellano take the absorbing real life events of Papa Liborio, and make them irritatingly vague, with no real character or plot outline being given for the followers or Liborio himself.

This movie gives us a glimpse into the life of a countryman, spiritual healer and leader of a community in the early 1900's. The director delivers a 3rd person view while giving us the ability to feel the rough country life from that time. However, the story has a rather cold start with no character background which may also seem like there's room for a sequel. This movie portrays a very real view of life in the Dominican Republic in the beginning of the 1900's.

The directorial debut of editor Nino Martínez, a collaborator of Jaime Rosales, is an incursion into the world of magic and spirituality. A visually beautiful film, transcendent in its narrative. We see the story/legend of Liborio from different points of view, the views of the community. It is a story in which the limits are not clear: life and death, reality and fantasy, truth and lies... Liborio's path is like sugar in water: you can't see it, but you can savor.