The Sacred Spirit (2021) (BLU-RAY REVIEW)
Director: Chema García Ibarra
Starring: Llum Arques, Nacho Fernández, Rocío Ibáñez
RATED: UR/REGION A/1:58/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 2
AVAILABLE FROM Arrow Video
A missing girl. A community in shock. Jose Manuel lives a quiet life. He works in his modest tapas bar, takes care of his elderly mother and attends weekly meetings of the Ovni-Levante, a group of devoted UFO enthusiasts who gather after hours at the office of a local estate agent to exchange information about extraterrestrial messages and alien abductions. When their leader dies unexpectedly, only Jose is left to know the cosmic secret that could alter the future of humanity. And only Jose knows what he must do. As if Ken Loach and Aki Kaurismaki remade the The X-Files, The Sacred Spirit is a provocative, humane, and unsparing vision that marks the arrival of a unique new voice in genre cinema.
If you see the trailer for Arrow Video’s release of The Sacred Spirit you’d think you were getting a rather serious movie about aliens. However, if you read the stuff on the screen (not just the subtitles) you’ll get a head start on the fact that this one was a dark comedy. Now, I didn’t do that and I was a bit surprised by what we got with this one. Anyway, a young girl has been abducted in a small area and people that believe in UFOs are under investigation among other things. The movie can be funny and it can also be a bit dark from time to time. I liked that the people who believe in aliens here weren’t made a total joke of and the movie also benefits from the fact that it feels like it gets darker and unsettling as this one rolls along. What it leads us to is something else. And I mean that in a good way. Any movie that makes you feel uneasy after you see it is a winner in my book and while I know a lot of folks won’t be into reading subtitles here, this one has more than the norm to offer.
The actual release of this one apparently comes with a second disc packed full of stuff. I wouldn’t know sadly because I was sent a check disc for this one, but I hear it has a lot of short films on there. You also get a cool-looking foldout poster (I hear), once again I didn’t get that or the booklet. And if you couldn’t tell I’m pretty sad about it. Bitterness about all of that aside, you get some good and a bit weird stuff here with The Sacred Spirit. If you look past the subtitles and the weird ratio (a fitting one really) you are left with something worthy of tossing into your Arrow Video collection.
Extras
DISC 1 – FEATURE & EXTRAS
- High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentation
- DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Beyond the Eye of Horus, a visual essay about the use of surveillance and Egyptology in The Sacred Spirit by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Pyramid Scheme, a visual essay examining conspiracy, class and capitalism in The Sacred Spirit by Josh Nelson
- Domestic Science Fiction, an interview with writer-director Chema Garcia Ibarra
- Behind the Scenes, four short featurettes shot during production
- Elche Vision, a series of six location reports about the making of the film, hosted by actress Lorena Iglesias in character as Esther Armengol, presenter of The Sacred Spirit’s fictional local TV show
- Promotional videos in which the characters of The Sacred Spirit talk about themselves
- Uncut TV Clips, background television broadcasts shot especially for the film and presented here in full
- Image gallery
- Theatrical trailer
DISC 2 – DOMESTIC SCI-FI: THE SHORT FILMS OF CHEMA GARCIA IBARRA (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE) - The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5 (2008) 7 mins, Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
- Protoparticles (2013) 8 mins, Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
- Mystery (2013) 12 mins, Berlin International Film Festival Award Winner
- Uranes (2014) 59 mins
- The Disco Shines (2016) 12 mins, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema Award Winner
- The Golden Legend (2019) 11 mins, Ann Arbor Film Festival Award Winner
