I recently came across this review I wrote for MovieMaker Magazine back in 1999 and was reminded how great I think this film is. Find it at your video store, demand it from Netflix, do what you must, but see SANTITOS!

Santitos (reviewed 1999)

This may be Director Alejandro Springall's feature film debut, but his wealth of experience, both as a docu­mentary filmmaker and a producer (most recently of Cronos) from Mexico has primed him well for this wildly humorous and beautifully executed story. Moving effortlessly from saints who appear in oven doors to a rapturous collision of the mysti­cal and mundane, Santitos is the story of a young widow who has recently suffered the loss of her only child-a daughter who never woke up from a tonsil operation. Haunted by not being allowed to see her daughter's dead body, Esperanza is convinced by a vision of St. Jude that the child hasn't really died after all. Her journey of discovery (and also, ultimately, of sexuality) provides a litany of experiences at once defining, precarious and bizarre. Springall has fashioned a rare, whimsical tone in this story that promises redemption in return for faith, and in this milieu-home to melodra­ma and fervent religion-we find the perfect pitch for a gentle parody of naive superstition. Festival audiences have roared with delight at this boldly sexual story , and a recent re-editing after its Sundance premiere has left the film a lustrous pearl amid a sea of indie entries.