Cotolay

The plot is loosely based on the legend from Galicia in north-west Spain of the founding by St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) of the Convent of San Francisco near Santiago de Compostela in 1214 with the help of a poor charcoal burner named Cotolay, who found a buried treasure which paid for the construction. This slow moving but engaging film opens with St Francis arriving in Santiago with two other monks - Juan of Florence and Bernardo de Quintavalle - during a pilgrimage there to visit the tomb of St James the Apostle in the cathedral. He receives a divine revelation to tarry there until the meaning of his vision becomes clear. Faint with hunger he meets Cotolay (the 14-year-old Didier Haudepin) who gives the monks (stolen) figs to eat and leads them to the nearby Mount Pedroso where logging-master Tarna gives them food and lodging in return for work during their stay. While praying on the mountain St Francis believes he has been divinely instructed that his order of mendicant friars...