
Review by Beatrice On 27-Jun-2023
She, Luminita, sleeps on the street, takes passport photos, washes in public toilets, steals and has a "friend" in a morgue with whom she is up to something.
He, an elderly, shabby man who lives in a shabby apartment, has a dog, two wedding rings, one on his ring finger one on his little finger, someone who collects wheel rims while he has tires burned, someone he owes money to, hides a lot of it in a cement mixer. He must often go to the hospital where Luminita sees him going there to steal meals left by the sick.
First work of mercy: Visiting the sick.
She continues to steal and bring money to her "masters" who make her sleep in a van.
Second work of mercy: Feeding the hungry.
It is understood that the one who works at the morgue will provide her on payment with the accompanied identity of a deceased woman. He hands her some leftover meals from the hospital.
Third work of mercy: Housing pilgrims.
She follows the elderly man home, assaults him, he hands her his wallet, and she ties him up by locking him in a closet where she leaves him by bringing him food in a bowl and making him eat like a dog.
He stays in her house, takes a shower and finally sleeps in a bed.
Fourth work of mercy: Give drink to the thirsty
He kidnaps an infant from its owners and it is understood that he agrees with someone who will probably want to sell it. He takes it to the house of the elderly man who is untied and left free to roam; the child cries continuously and he will quench its thirst.
In the meantime, the young man to whom the elderly man owed money goes looking for him but she does not open the door and makes it appear that no one is there.
The next day when she returns she finds no one there, neither the elderly man nor the child.
Fifth work of mercy: Visiting prisoners.
She threatens him, wants to know where he put the baby. She lies down, he undresses her and gives her clothes to wear.
Sixth work of mercy: Dressing the naked.
She nurses him, undresses him, washes him, dresses him. He collapses on her. They go to the hospital.
Seventh work of mercy: Burying the dead.
They fall asleep in the hospital, then go home.
He gives the worker the package of money he was keeping and brings the baby back to her, who gives it back to the "masters"; they violently beat her.
He survives as a very sick old man with a few secrets, perhaps; she tries to live by the day, trying to obtain, illegally an identity card and in one way or another performs works of mercy even if they are the means to the end of survival.
Briefly they care for each other, mutually perform works of mercy.
Only the last mercy seems unfinished for lack of dead to bury, one must live to die!
A film that cannot leave one indifferent, a glimpse of an often misunderstood reality. It presents in an exemplary way the Christian message of hope on the one hand and the desperate life lived on the other: the rule is one thing another its application, between saying and doing there is the end, it seems...
An imperfect shot, a bit presumptuous but it leaves its mark.
27-Jun-2023 by Beatrice