THE BLOOD AND THE HEN

(Directed by Roger Canals Vilageliu, Venezuela 2009, 13 min., Spanish with English subtitles)

In a humble house of the outskirts of Maracaibo (Venezuela), John, a medium of the María Lionza’s cult, and Javier, his assistant, are going to start a healing ritual. The sick person is Josefina, a sixty years old woman who suffers of headache, nightmares and anxiety. John considers that an evil spirit has entered into her body and that Josefina must be spiritually cleansed. To do so, he will perform several ritual techniques as prayers, use of “sacred powder” or the sacrifice of a hen.
This short film leads us to the world of María lionza’s cult, the most important religion in contemporary Venezuelan society and show us the complexity of this belief, where we can find elements coming from Catholicism, African cults, Amerindian tradition or Spiritualism, among others.