Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

The Sacred Spirit

Play trailer Poster for The Sacred Spirit 2021 1h 37m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
93% Tomatometer 14 Reviews 60% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
José Manuel and the other members of the ufology association Ovni-Levante meet weekly to exchange information about extraterrestrial messages and abductions. Julio, their leader, dies unexpectedly, leaving José Manuel as the only person who knows about the cosmic secret that could alter the human future. Meanwhile in Spain a search is going on for a little girl who disappeared some weeks before.

Critics Reviews

View All (14) Critics Reviews
Jay Weissberg Variety Fascinated by the ways science fiction and the paranormal burrow inside people looking for meaning in an anarchic world, the filmmaker weaves an idiosyncratic story of a group of UFO believers oblivious to a darker element in their midst. Aug 17, 2021 Full Review Carlos Bonfil La Jornada The Sacred Spirit is a delirious comedy that irreverently addresses the propensity of a community to blindly fall for, in esoteric practice or political mirage, the manipulations of swindlers. [Full review in Spanish] Jul 3, 2023 Full Review Dev Shea Nightmarish Conjurings I think The Sacred Spirit deserves a watch, but it’s definitely for a certain audience. There won’t be any intense action sequences and the most intense thing you will see is a woman talking about her extensive culinary training. Sep 13, 2022 Full Review Evan Dossey Midwest Film Journal Though gorgeously shot, "The Sacred Spirit" ultimately has little new to say about the dark corners of religious belief. Aug 13, 2022 Full Review Carlos Esquives Cinencuentro The Sacred Spirit is more accurately an environment in which a city is being overtaken by ridicule. It's like saying that a pig doesn't fly, and suddenly you do see a pig flying in the sky. Here, logic is put to the test. [Full review in Spanish] Jun 24, 2022 Full Review Javier Ocaña El Pais (Spain) Where the seemingly surreal meets the quotidian... [Full review in Spanish] Jun 22, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (2) audience reviews
Catherine G It starts off as a charming look into the lives of devout UFO followers in a small town and it is easy to fall in love with these characters. They are so deeply rooted in their united belief that they have an insight into events to come. One of them has a deeper calling and the innocence of this belief is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time as the true intent of those in power are revealed. It is all the more heartbreaking when we realize that this is happening today. It is a slow burn and the combination of the suspense and the subtitles made it hard to turn away from it, even as the realization of the deep evil comes to light. The first scene sets the stage for the directorial style and it had me hooked. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/09/23 Full Review Audience Member "Cosmic Pharaoh" José Manuel is a member of the ufology association Ovni-Levante (UFO-Raise), which meets weekly to exchange information about the latest messages from the stars and abductions down here on Earth. When their leader dies unexpectedly, José becomes humanity's only hope, the keeper of a cosmic secret. Even more mysteriously, that knowledge ties in to the disappearance of José's niece Vanessa from the town of Elche. This movie packs in every conspiracy theory you've ever heard — ancient aliens, organ harvesting, secret societies — and places them alongside the very human drama of growing up weird in a dysfunctional family in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Director and writer Chema García Ibarra has put together something quite strange here and that last image of the Sphinx — inflating as it brings the goofiness, the strange and the everyday together much like the rest of this film — is one that will stick with me for some time. And that first scene, where Vanessa's twin sister Verónica gives her class a speech about what devil worshippers look for when they kidnap children? It perfectly sums up the rest of the film, a story about how believers search for meaning and yet often miss the darkness gathering around them if it doesn't fit the mythology they've created for themselves. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Sacred Spirit

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis José Manuel and the other members of the ufology association Ovni-Levante meet weekly to exchange information about extraterrestrial messages and abductions. Julio, their leader, dies unexpectedly, leaving José Manuel as the only person who knows about the cosmic secret that could alter the human future. Meanwhile in Spain a search is going on for a little girl who disappeared some weeks before.
Director
Chema García Ibarra
Producer
Leire Apellaniz, Miguel Molina, Marina Perales Marhuenda, Xavier Rocher, Marina Perales, Enes Erbay, Adan Aliaga
Screenwriter
Chema García Ibarra
Production Co
Teferruat Film, Jaibo Films, La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma, Apellaniz & De Sosa
Genre
Drama
Original Language
European Spanish
Runtime
1h 37m