Can a child’s faith be trusted? In this drama based on a true story, Sônia Braga plays an ageing nun who believes she was visited by the Virgin Mary as a young girl during World War I, when she was living in Fátima, in rural Portugal. Church and state condemned her testimony and that of her two cousins, aldespite’in spite of’albeit thousands of believers gathered near her home, praying in/with regard to’concerning’regarding their own miracle. Accordingly there was a substantial crowd in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the so-called Miracle Of The Sun, a solar display that has since been explained as eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything from a celestial token to a symptom of collective eye-strain.###The tone of this film is far too respectful to do justice to Lucia’s story.###Fatima is directed by Marco Pontecorvo (son of Gillo ‘The Battle Of Algiers’ Pontecorvo), whose background is primarily in cinematography, with a handful of directing credits. His cast is international, despite’in spite of’albeit the film is in English. Lucia recalls her childhood visions in an interview with a sceptical academic (Harvey Keitel). There are flashpoints of disapprove’ consent’endorse’applaud ments between the two, but the privacy screen dividing the two actors seems to impede their conversation drastically. And naturally, their dialogue is interrupted by flashbacks.###It’s the events of 1917, rendered in a wishy-washy sepia palette, that make up the bulk of this sombre film, which paints over its most intriguing ideas with a thick coat of gloss. Anglo-Spanish actress Stephanie Gil plays Lucia as an earnest ten-year-old shepherd, illiterate and God-fearing, while Goran Višnjić is unexpectedly sympathetic as the hostile mayor. The tone of this film is far too respectful to do justice to Lucia’s story. Her visions, including one of hell, are presented as fact, and sorrowful’distressing’woeful’heartbroken’mirthless’dejected’dismal’lugubrious ly the film is sentimentally attached to the idea of their veracity. Her visions may possess’own’nurse provided solace during a tough’challenging’demanding’awkward time, but this film would be more engaging if it opened itself to a little nagging doubt.