‘Santitos’: Refreshing Tale of One Woman’s Reawakening

“Santitos” is pure enchantment, a beguiling tale of love, faith and self-discovery told in a colorful, effortless folkloric style by Alejandro Spingall. It’s from a script by Maria Amparo Escandon that she developed from her novel at the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab, where she met Spingall.

“Santitos” is the first film to be distributed by Latin Universe, which claims that it is “the nation’s first Spanish-language film distribution company catering exclusively to the Latino entertainment marketplace.”

“Santitos,” which lists John Sayles as its executive producer and boasts excellent English subtitles, has the same kind of humor, charm and sensuality that made “Like Water for Chocolate” the most popular foreign-language film until “Life Is Beautiful” came along.

Dolores Heredia stars as Esperanza, a beautiful and devoutly religious young widow who lives in the quaint Veracruz town of Tlacotalpan with her beloved teenage daughter, Blanca. One day Blanca undergoes a tonsillectomy, and the next thing Esperanza knows, her daughter has died, the victim of an unknown virus. The distraught mother is not allowed to see her daughter’s body.

On the glass window of her kitchen oven, Esperanza experiences a vision of a plaster statue of St. Jude, who suddenly speaks, telling her not to believe those who would tell her that her daughter is dead. That her daughter’s doctor leaves the hospital the day after Blanca’s reported death understandably heightens Esperanza’s anxiety. With the support of the kindly, understanding local priest (Fernando Torre Lapham), Esperanza commences a long odyssey, convinced that Blanca has been sold into slavery.

Esperanza takes a job as a maid at a local brothel as a starting point for gathering clues about Blanca’s fate. The most slender of tips sends her off to Tijuana, where there is supposed to be a highly secret bordello called the Pink House.

Esperanza reluctantly but bravely becomes one of the stable, only to end up the exclusive, well-paid lover of a kindly, good-looking, middle-aged San Diego judge (Rudger Cudney), who smuggles her into Los Angeles when she receives another tip about Blanca’s possible whereabouts. In L.A., she is swept up into a romance with a tall, handsome wrestler (Angel Galvan) who bills himself as the “Angel of Justice.”

What Esperanza is unexpectedly experiencing is her reawakening as a woman while searching for her daughter, a quest that she will not relinquish until she either finds Blanca or receives a sign that she is in fact dead, presumably safely ensconced in heaven.

Tone is everything in such a film, and cast and crew alike clearly understand that they are engaged in depicting a woman unwittingly caught up in the process of balancing the spiritual with the physical in her life. Never does the film mock Esperanza’s faith--or religion itself, for that matter--and it embraces her quest with affection and respect. Ultimately, “Santitos” celebrates the unity of the flesh and the spirit in a thoroughly refreshing manner.

* MPAA rating: R, for sexual content and language. Times guidelines: Discreet but decidedly adult situations and themes.

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‘Santitos’

Dolores Heredia: Esperanza

Fernando Torre Lapham: Padre Salvador

Demian Bichir: Cacomixtle

Alberto Estrella: Angel

A Latin Universe release of a Spingall Pictures production. Producer-director Alejandro Spingall. Executive producer John Sayles. Screenplay Maria Amparo Escandon; from her novel. Cinematographer Xavier Perez Grobet. Editor Carol Dysinger. Music Carlo Nicolau, Rosino Serrano. Costumes Monica Neumaier. Art directors Salvador Parra, Eugenio Caballero. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

In general release. Theater locations: (877) 378-8246.