The film

The  “Sacred Heart” weaves together historical reconstructions, first-hand accounts and spiritual reflections, offering an intimate insight into how the Sacred Heart has become a symbol of merciful love for millions of the faithful. These diverse voices show how devotion to the Sacred Heart touches every social stratum, reaching even those far removed from the Church.

The film traces the history of one of the most widespread devotions in Catholicism, beginning in 17th-century France, when in the town of Paray-le-Monial the Visitation nun Margaret Mary Alacoque recounted having received a series of apparitions of Jesus between 1673 and 1675.

In those visions, the Lord showed the saint his Heart as a symbol of God’s merciful love for humanity and entrusted her with the task of spreading this devotion within the Church.

The film evokes that historical and spiritual context through fictional scenes that reconstruct the saint’s visions and the role of her spiritual director, Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, who helped to make known and support the spread of the message of the Sacred Heart. These sequences are accompanied by numerous contemporary testimonies: priests, religious and laypeople recount how devotion to the Sacred Heart has shaped their lives, showing how the message of Christ’s love continues to speak to the world today.

Among the protagonists of the stories gathered in the film are people from very different backgrounds — a couple rediscovering their faith, a converted musician, a young man with an illness, a former drug dealer from the French suburbs and a woman committed to helping prisoners — all united by their encounter with the spirituality of the Sacred Heart.

The film has exceeded all expectations at the box office across the Alps, attracting more than 400,000 viewers.

The Salesian contribution for Italian viewers

Since its release in Italian cinemas, a short introduction to the film is shown before the screening, filmed inside the Salesian Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome – the International Shrine of Devotion to the Sacred Heart – where the Rector of the Salesian community, Fr Francesco Marcoccio, SDB, and Federica Picchi, founder of ‘Dominus Production’, highlight in particular the reparatory aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The explanation of an unexpected success

But why is a film about the Sacred Heart of Jesus so successful? “This is a simple film technically, but of profound meaning –, explained Federica Picchi –. The audience success confirmed what I hoped would happen, which was that the richness of content has transcended form and I believe is something surprising today in the time of the society of image and appearance”.

It’s a film for everyone and in which everyone felt involved: “We received many testimonies, especially from young people who in the film found the answers to their questions precisely through faith”.

It seems strange to think that in the society of Artificial Intelligence, the message of Christ can resonate on the big screen: “The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus attracts so much because each of us needs to feel loved and this hunger for love is precisely inherent in our DNA. This film is captivating because it represents love with a capital A, because it bears witness to everyday lives, of different ages and different origins, all united by love”.

References

To find out the theaters where the film is being shown, as well as to know all the details of the project, visit the website: https://www.sacrocuorefilm.it 

The introduction to the film, shot at the Salesian Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Castro Pretorio in Rome, is available here.