''Gospa'' ( Croatian for "

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

" or "Our Lady") is a 1995 religious drama starring

Martin Sheen Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...

and

Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild (born Patsy Ann McClenny; February 3, 1950) is an American actress. She began acting in the early 1970s and has had roles in several television series since then. Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera '' Searc ...

about pilgrimages to a small Herzegovinian village of

Međugorje Medjugorje (, ) is a village in the municipality of Čitluk in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1981, it has become a popular site of Catholic pilgrimage due to Our ...

where six school children say the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981. The movie highlights persecutions of

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

, particularly of the clergy, by the communist authorities of the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. Martin Sheen plays

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

priest

Jozo Zovko Jozo Zovko, OFM (born 19 March 1941) is a Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan priest, most notable for being a parish priest in Medjugorje during the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. He was very active in the promotion of apparitions ar ...

, who was tried for sedition by the Yugoslav government.

Cast

as Father

Michael York Michael York (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television, and stage actor. After performing on stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Romeo ...

as Milan Vuković *

as Sister Fabijana Zovko *

Paul Guilfoyle Paul Vincent Guilfoyle () (born April 28, 1949) is an American character actor. He was a regular cast member of the CBS crime drama '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', on which he played Captain Jim Brass from 2000 to 2014. He returned for ...

as Miodrag Dobrović * Ray Girardin as Father Zrinko Čuvalo *

Frank Finlay Francis Finlay, (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an English actor. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Iago in ''Othello'' (1965). His first leading television role came in 1971 in '' Casanova''.

as Monsignor * Tony Zazula as prosecutor Govanović *

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as judge Marulić * Angelo Santiago as Vlado Palić *

Mustafa Nadarević Mustafa Nadarević (2 May 1943 – 22 November 2020) was a Bosnian actor. Widely considered one of the greatest actors from the former Yugoslavia, he starred in over 70 films, including '' The Smell of Quinces'' (1982), '' When Father Was Away on ...

as major Stović * Slavko Brankov as 2nd Jail Guard * Nela Čolić-Prizmić as French Journalist * Anica Tomić as Mirjana Dragičević

Production

During production, actor Vasek Simek died during a break in filming. Simek had a co-starring role in the film, and collapsed while attending a play at the Croatian National theater. Director Yakov Sedlar decided to dedicate the film to his memory.

Reception

The film won the Golden Gate of Pula (audience award for best film as voted by festival audiences) at the 42nd

Pula Film Festival Pula Film Festival () is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula Arena. Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival and is usually held in the summer, in July or Aug ...

, and ''

Vjesnik ''Vjesnik'' () was a Croatian state-owned daily newspaper published in Zagreb. Originally established in 1940 as a wartime illegal publication of the Communist Party of Croatia, it later built and maintained a reputation as Croatia's newspaper ...

'' award Jelen.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave ''Gospa'' two stars out of four. He noted the enthusiastic responses by the film's audiences in the United States, but felt that its "impact is religious and political, not cinematic", and that "it really isn't a very good film". In 2014, Croatian TV critic Zrinka Pavlić described it as a "bad film, with bad acting and an almost cartoon-like depiction of the situation it deals with". Film critic and Catholic priest Peter Malone writes that the film's "strong pro-Croatian perspective seems more

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

-like than informative" and most of the dialogue is "stilted writing".

References

External links

*
'Gospa' Sneaks Into Town on Wing, Prayer
1995 films Films about Catholicism American films based on actual events Croatian drama films English-language Croatian films Films directed by Jakov Sedlar Marian apparitions in film 1990s English-language films American drama films 1990s American films Anti-communist propaganda films {{Croatia-film-stub