Miracle

Ishmael Bernal's 1982 Filipino film is regarded as the most cited work in the country's cinema. When Elsa, a plain orphan, begins saying she has seen the Virgin Mary, the residents of her isolated village start questioning their own beliefs and values. Elsa begins healing the sick, and as word spreads the village fills with tourists, pilgrims and opportunists. Ricky Lee's screenplay presents the miracle as an economy. Nora Aunor's performance keeps it uncertain to the end whether the character actually believes. The line about there being no miracle, spoken in the final scene, became a phrase lodged in Filipino popular culture. The film won many prizes at the 1982 Metro Manila Film Festival, best picture among them; in a 2008 viewers' poll run by CNN and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards it was voted the best Asia-Pacific film of all time, ahead of Seven Samurai. Who it's for: viewers interested in Filipino cinema and films about religion and crowd psychology. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding scenes of sexual violence and lynching, or unable to take a heavy and hopeless tone.