I have read with interest some of the strange interpretations of this movie. The inability to understand what the story this movie conveys is largely down to the lack of awareness of the Catholic faith as its no longer in favour with some due to how the church responded to allegations of abuse.
This is a movie about a saint. The main actor bears more than a passing resemblance to Michelangelos David in both facial features and hair. His behaviour is selfless and he turns the other cheek when abused. He is dutiful and never questions authority. He is in short the ideal catholic or rather the ideal that the catholic religion teaches.
Religious iconography is all over this movie and there is also a discussion about saints and their demise, the so called shock ending is no shock if you have have ever attended mass. This is not exactly a surprise as this movie is based in a catholic country.
The movie is the story about a person who is used as a beast of burden by a group of tobacco workers who are in turn being exploited by the rich, all very biblical. The story is split into two with the first half focusing on the tobacco farm and the second years later in a city setting.
There is alot of gentle humour in the movie and it is in part poverty porn, its about the poorest of the poor being exploited by those with better finances. This is also a very catholic idea, that the poor will get to heaven while the rich will not. The story itself is quite simple but is maybe overlong at over two hours.
This is a movie which would likely play well to a religious audience who understand where the narrative is coming from. However its in Italian which may limit its reach. Its certainly playing well with the so called educated classes however they appear to be uneducated in the texts of dominant christian religion and interpret this movie as "magical" but seem to miss the point.
If you enjoyed Being There this is basically a religious version on the same themes, recommended but its not magical its religious.
Review of Happy as Lazzaro
