Depending on the storyteller, the early 20th century folk hero Olivorio Mateo (the Papá Liborio of the title), was a Creole saint or a dangerous cult leader. His origins are inauspicious: a farmer thought to be dead after a hurricane in San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic. After a Novena, he miraculously returns, claiming that he was in heaven and sent back to Earth by God.
Nino Martínez Sosa’s lush, beguiling Nd/Nf selection Liborio recounts his influence––but not with the focused purpose or literary density of a biopic. Despite an otherworldly and ominous prologue of his origins, Sosa’s filmmaking approach largely sidesteps a version of his truth, favoring both over the shoulder angles in its visual language and a historically informed, but cryptic structure.
After his return, Liborio’s reputation bloomed and he became the center of attention for his home village––a...
Nino Martínez Sosa’s lush, beguiling Nd/Nf selection Liborio recounts his influence––but not with the focused purpose or literary density of a biopic. Despite an otherworldly and ominous prologue of his origins, Sosa’s filmmaking approach largely sidesteps a version of his truth, favoring both over the shoulder angles in its visual language and a historically informed, but cryptic structure.
After his return, Liborio’s reputation bloomed and he became the center of attention for his home village––a...
- 5/6/2021
- by Michael Snydel
- The Film Stage
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