Film

Himala

Name: Himala
Genre: Drama
Released: 1982
Cast: Nora Aunor, Spanky Manikan, Vangie Labalan, Gigi Dueñas, Laura Centeno

Himala is a 1982 Philippine masterpiece about a young orphan whose apparent Marian visions transform her impoverished village overnight. Ishmael Bernal's film watches with crystalline clarity as faith, greed, and desperation collide—never mocking belief, but unflinching about what people will do in its name. A slow-burn spiritual reckoning that sneaks up on you.

TMDb rating

4.0

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The Seventh Seal1957

Bergman's knight plays chess with Death while a plague ravages Sweden. Like Himala, it's a meditation on faith tested by suffering, shot through with doubt and dark humour. Visually austere, spiritually searching.

But It moves at deliberate pace and demands patience with philosophical dialogue. Some find Bergman's existentialism glacial rather than profound.

Stalker1979

Tarkovsky's pilgrims journey through a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. Both films explore how faith and desire warp perception, using landscape and silence as spiritual language. Hypnotic and strange.

But Nearly three hours of slow, contemplative science fiction. If you need plot momentum, this will feel like watching grass grow in a metaphor.

Midnight Cowboy1969

Schlesinger's brutal New York portrait of desperation and exploitation. Like Himala, it observes how vulnerable people become prey when systems fail them. Unflinching about human nature without contempt.

But It's grim, sexually explicit, and offers no redemption. The exploitation is the point, which some find punishing rather than illuminating.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Himala

The wildcard

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The Gospel According to St. Matthew1965

Both films locate the sacred in the bodies and faces of ordinary people, and both interrogate how communities weaponize faith against the vulnerable.

Pasolini's radical, unsentimental Life of Christ shot in Italian villages with nonprofessional actors. Like Himala, it insists Christ belongs to the poor and marginalized, not institutions. Black-and-white neorealism makes it feel like documentary truth.

But A communist filmmaker's Jesus feels heretical to some. The slow, austere style offers no comfort or certainty, only witness.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew poster

The Wailing2016

Na Hong-jin's Korean thriller where a mysterious stranger arrives in a village and chaos unfolds—no one can agree on what's real or who to trust. Both films pit faith against doubt with mounting dread. Extraordinary craft.

But It's 156 minutes and refuses to answer its central questions. Viewers seeking closure will leave frustrated and arguing.

Winter Light1963

Another Bergman: a pastor with no faith meets a suicidal parishioner. Sparse, intimate examination of how belief crumbles. Thematically aligned with Himala's interest in spiritual crisis and human need.

But Bleak Swedish chamber piece with minimal plot. It's philosophy as drama, which can feel more like thesis than story.

The Holy Family2006

Russian documentary about a cult leader in Siberia who claims supernatural powers. Non-fiction counterpoint to Himala's themes: how communities construct meaning around charismatic figures.

But Real suffering in real time. Watching actual people trapped in delusion is sadder and more uncomfortable than fiction.

Jesus of Montreal1989

Arcand's Canadian film about actors performing a Passion play who find themselves living one. Clever, funny, and deadly serious about faith's power. Similar interest in performance, belief, and spiritual hunger.

But The satire can overshadow the sincerity. Some scenes feel like clever ideas rather than earned moments.

The Last Temptation of Christ1988

Scorsese's controversial portrait of Christ as doubting human. Himala shares its refusal to separate spiritual experience from human vulnerability and desire. Theologically ambitious and genuinely moving.

But Scorsese's God is not conventionally comforting. Many find the film's vision of faith too existential to be spiritually nourishing.

The Turin Horse2011

Béla Tarr's final film: bleak, black-and-white apocalypse with minimal dialogue. Like Himala, it watches the end of something—hope, meaning, connection—without sentiment. A companion to Himala's spiritual devastation.

But It's a dirge. If you watch it seeking uplift, you've come to the wrong film. Relentlessly austere and hopeless.

Memories of Murder2003

Both films show communities turned inward by crisis, seeking answers in impossible places, and both blame systems that should protect but abandon them.

Bong Joon-ho's serial killer thriller set in 1980s South Korea during police authoritarianism. Entirely different genre, but identical DNA: how trauma and institutional failure leave entire communities spiritually hollowed. Gripping and magnificent.

But It's a procedural about brutal murders. The violence is necessary, never exploitative, but the film earns nothing easy.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both films recognize that belief and performance are the same thing, and that communities are built on shared fictions we agree to inhabit.

Kaufman's bewildering masterpiece about a theater director creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse. Like Himala, it's about how we construct reality through performance and faith. Unhinged, brilliant, heartbreaking.

But It's deliberately confusing in ways that feel pretentious. Some see profound ambition; others see self-indulgent nonsense. No middle ground exists.