A Pilgrimage to Cinema

(Note: Mild spoilers) I grew up as a kid on the horror movie genre. This is perhaps the genre that primarily molded my love for cinema. I remember that I was always eagerly looking forward to the horror movie that would be featured every Friday night on channel 2 or 4 during the 80s (my childhood years). Films about vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers or any other creature, or practically any kind of horror movie got shown in those weekly TV programs. On the other hand, a visit to the local cinema would be because of a horror movie shown on that particular week (accompanied by my parents, of course). In a horror movie, it is quite clear who are the victims and who are the villains. The primary emotion being fed upon as well as its object are also clearly identified. And that is, fear: the fear of an evil person or creature, the fear of being helpless, defenseless and hopeless when faced with them. The good thing is that the protagonist can actually do something about them...

Redemption through religion is a tricky matter in cinema. It can either make the person in question too saintly for comfort or it can hastily require some miraculous act which may call upon a suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewers. For the protagonist's grace from God to be completely credible and acceptable, the filmmaker must make sure that the viewers get hooked on the protagonist right from the start. The audience must be willing to "accompany" the central character on the road to redemption all along, so to speak. That is what exactly Cedric Kahn did with his main protagonist in " The Prayer " (2018, France;shown in the recent French Film Festival, June 6-12 at Ayala cinemas), a moving yet unsentimental tale of a lost soul gradually finding himself back on track. The lost soul here is Thomas (played by Anthony Bajon, who was awarded the Best Actor prize for his role in this year's Berlinale), a 20-something heroin junkie who is sent to a ...