I have been wrestling with OCA since I first saw it. I’ve watched it three times now and I’m still not certain what I think of it. Normally I would say that it is a good thing because it means I’ve remained connected to the film but with OCA I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, largely because I’m not sure I know what the film is trying to say.
The film is the story of a nun named Oca. She is in a dying
convent in the country. It is only herself and two other nuns. Oca is prone to
having mystical visions. She is sent by her superior to speak to the archbishop
about saving the convent. She is told if she is not successful, not to come
back. Along the way she meets some pilgrims carrying a saint, a rich woman with
an important husband and a pilot who wants to go on leave but can’t because of
the arrival of the archbishop.
Set up as journey of faith, OCA is a film that is always
reaching to say something more than the surface. The people Oca meet are not
just people but representation of some spiritual aspect. This is fine for the
deeper meaning but for the human narrative the film feels artificial. Since
everyone isn’t just a person, they never are human, and we never connect. My
repeated watching of the film was a search for a human being on the screen and
not a cinematic treatise.
Intellectually I like the film, but emotionally I don’t need to see it again.
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