Cuore Sacro is another impressive film from Turkish-born director, but resident of Italy, Ferzan Ozpetek.   Moving from his native Turkey, he studied film in Rome and continued to make films there.

He was assistant director to many celebrated directors before his own film debut, Hamam, The Turkish Bath, 1998.  He also made an interesting film about another enclosed society, homosexuals in Rome, Le Fate Ignoranti.  He then followed this with a wider-based drama about relationships, The Window Opposite, La Fenestre di Fronte. 

With Cuore Sacro he explores Italian society, the world of business, the poorer Rome.  Eventually he moves into religious themes as indicated by the title of the film.  However, Sacred Heart does not refer to the pictures of Jesus and his heart.  Rather, one of the characters in the film writes a letter about people having two hearts, the  normal physical heart and a more genuine hidden heart which is sacred.  If they were to follow that heart, their lives would be different. 

The film stars Barbara Bobuloba (Where Are You?).  She portrays a very successful businesswoman, supported by her aunt.  She is an award winner, an achiever.  When she goes to the palazzo where her parents lived, she discovers more about her mother who spent her life in an enclosed room.   She also plans to tear down the palace to make apartments.  When she encounters a cheeky young girl, and is the victim of a con that the girl perpetrates pretending to be assaulted in the street, she becomes attached to her.  The little girl is involved in distributing food to the poor, working for a priest in the area.  The girl is suddenly killed, the businesswoman goes to see the priest, goes to visit the hospital, meets the mother – and then decides to continue the work of food distribution.

The film changes from realism to fantasy in the middle – especially where the young woman is in her mother’s room, trying to decipher the writing that is on the wall, reflecting on the meaning of her mother’s life.  She descends from the room and goes into the basement of the building which is now a soup kitchen.  The film shows her involvement in works of charity, the support of the priest, his taking her to the authorities in the Vicariate of Rome and her going to a railway station after being pressed by the poor and stripping herself of everything, something like St Francis of Assisi.  

The film is very interesting as a social drama.  However, in its imaginative exploration of matters of justice and holiness, it is quite a striking drama. 

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