An early gift is coming for moviegoers for Advent and Christmas. The new film I Am The Immaculate Conception will begin showing in theaters nationwide starting Dec. 12. This magnificent docudrama, beautifully dramatized and photographed, is a Marian film that presents the Blessed Mother as flawlessly as possible for a movie. Scenes range from Mary’s early life and the Annunciation to after the Crucifixion, each one moving in its own way.

Because it is a docudrama, throughout the film, several experts on Scripture and Tradition weigh in on Mary and, naturally, the Immaculate Conception. With the Marian Fathers as collaborators on the film, familiar faces from the Marians appear throughout, including Fathers Chris Alar, Donald Calloway, Joseph Roesch, the superior general of the Marians, and Kazimierz Chwalek. They are also joined by other priests.

The film weaves a beautiful tapestry of many dramatic scenes and elements together with the commentaries, providing insights about Mary, what the Immaculate Conception means, and how its essential importance reverberates through the centuries. Even those already devoted to Mary should experience aha moments as the commentators make their devotional “gems” sparkle brighter and brighter.

For example, Father Alar sheds light on the Visitation this way: “When Mary visited Elizabeth, this is why the child in the womb of Elizabeth leapt for joy. Wherever Mary goes, there should be exaltation and devotion because she’s bringing Christ to us. This was a perfect example of the future understanding of Marian devotion. And, in fact, when Mary visited Elizabeth, the child leapt in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. Now, that’s important because that very same word in the original language for ‘leapt’ is ‘danced.’ When the child danced in front of Mary, who the Church Fathers call the New Ark of the Covenant, it made perfect sense in parallel with the Old Testament, Old Ark of the Covenant. The Old Ark of the Covenant housed the old law in stone, along with the manna, the bread. Now Mary, as the New Ark of the Covenant, houses the true New Covenant, the Word made flesh and also the true Bread of Life.”

This scene is highly important for yet a second reason. While other presentations of the Visitation are strained and even skip the beautiful word exchange between Mary and Elizabeth, Polish producer and director Michal Kondrat found a perfectly poetic, cinematic way of bringing the scene to life, not leaving Luke’s Gospel in the wings. As Mary and Elizabeth meet and begin to bask in the wonder of this event, the beauty of their meeting is enhanced in an original way. The musical score wraps the scene with Mary’s Magnificat sung by Romanian sacred music artist Maria Coman. The resulting song is beautiful, heart-stirring and uplifting.

Director Kondrat, whose credits include the films Love and Mercy: Faustina and Purgatory, artistically emphasizes connections and meanings as Renaissance masters did in their paintings. For instance, not only are transitions instructive, but they are especially expressive of certain connections, such as scenes blending to highlight the connection of Jesus’ Sacred Heart at the Last Supper with the Immaculate Conception at Mary’s parents’ home and also with Mary as a child in the Temple. The same for the Pietà scene — a moving connection between this and the Annunciation. As Mary cradles the body of her Son Jesus, she thinks of Gabriel’s words in the Annunciation as the visuals alternate between both scenes.

Filmed in Poland and the United States, these dramatizations are refreshing in the way they unfold. The events are portrayed with depth, thanks also to the actors. Take the Wedding at Cana: The festivities appear authentic to the time, yet the real focus is the exchange between Mother and Son presented in a way that shows Mary knows what providing the wine will mean for Jesus’ ministry and how that will ultimately lead to his crucifixion. In her request for the wedding couple, the emotions involved are played at the right level and read so easily in Mary’s reactions, expressed in subtle ways.

In this scene and throughout, Maria Juzwin offers one of the best onscreen portraits of Mary. She quite gracefully and superbly plays Mary in an age range from a young teen to a sorrowful mother. Her subtle facial expressions and movements convey Mary’s emotions and even suggest what her thoughts might be. Take, for example, the meeting in the Gospels that might have listeners wondering what Mary response is when Jesus was told his mother and brothers were looking for him and he answers, “Here are my mother and brothers and sisters. For whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother.” Mary’s silent reaction is worth a wealth of words and makes her thoughts of what he said quite clear — the same for the Pietà scene. Also, for the gathering in the Upper Room at Pentecost with a perfectly prolonged focus on Mary’s face; without a word, Juzwin helps viewers realize — and see — Mary’s sense of hope, peace, calm and vision for the future.

As Jesus, Kamil Przystal brings a quiet strength and intensity, especially in the scenes of the Last Supper and of the Wedding at Cana.

All of these scenes are augmented and explained by several narrators. The priests from the Marian Fathers, well-known for their Marian work and Divine Mercy connections, and other priests, all shed light, with insights on how the Immaculate Conception fits perfectly and necessarily in our salvation and leads to Marian devotion across the centuries. All of the explanations and enlightenments are profound yet easy to understand, highlighting how Mary can be born immaculately, without original sin, and why, as St. John Paul II said, “The mystery of the Immaculate Conception is at the very heart of our faith.”

Kondrat further enhances these narrations and keeps everything fresh with spot-on timing and “visualizing” various sections using beautiful classic religious mosaics and artwork.

At the same time, to show the everlasting importance of Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her extraordinary role in the divine plan for the salvation over the centuries, the film takes viewers back to the Garden of Eden and then fast-forwards to the future, first to Paris at the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal and then to Lourdes.

At the Rue de Bac Chapel in Paris, where Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré, viewers see the Miraculous Medal image framed by the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee” — a direct reference to Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Then Mary identified herself to St. Bernadette at Lourdes as “I am the Immaculate Conception.” At every step, this film emphasizes and explains the beauty and necessity of the Immaculate Conception and what it means for salvation.

In this film, not only Catholics fuzzy about the Immaculate Conception but importantly Christians from other denominations should easily understand the reasons and necessity for the Immaculate Conception.

“Mary is Immaculate because God needed a vessel by which to bring his Son to Earth to fulfill his plan of redemption,” Father Alar states. “Now, God cannot coexist with sin, so that vessel had to be pure, spotless and immaculate.”

“She was blessed because she was given by God the most important rule in human history, to bear his Son,” further explains Father Alar.

And Father Calloway builds on this point: “Before God created the heavens and the earth, he had Jesus, the incarnate God, the second Person of the Trinity, knowing that he was going to become man; he knew that would happen, and that means that God was going to create his own mother perfect, so beautiful, so flawless, that she would be immaculate, that she would have nothing to do with sin. … The Immaculate Conception was an essential part of that plan.”

Ultimately, I Am The Immaculate Conception is a powerful, beautifully dramatized and photographed docudrama that is both a gift to Mary, the Mother of Christ, and a welcome Advent and Christmas present for all. You will be blessed to see it.

LEARN MORE

I Am The Immaculate Conception is in theaters Dec 12, 14, 17. For tickets and theater options and to watch the trailer, visit the same website.