Academy Award Winning Director Xavier Koller to direct Harvey Keitel in THE MIRACLE OF PELHAM BAY PARK

Academy Award winning director Xavier Koller (JOURNEY OF HOPE) has come on board THE MIRACLE OF PELHAM BAY PARK. The story of an eleven-year-old girl who has a vision of the Virgin Mary in Pelham Bay Park (New York) and how the church try to crush her, the film will star: Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin and Isabella Rossellini. Based on the book by Anthony Mancini the script has been written by Charles Purpura (SATISFACTION).

It’s 1941, on a lovely morning in Pelham Bay Park, when eleven-year-old Lucia Buonfiglio (to be played by Anna Paquin) sees the Virgin Mary and is instructed to, “Tell all that you saw me. . . and ask them to believe.” She does.

First to hear about Lucia’s miracle is Father Owen Fogarty (to be played by Harvey Keitel) who initially doubts her story. But when Lucia falls into a catatonic state during Mass (bleeding from hands, feet, eyes, and side), all hell breaks lose. There’s exploitative journalism by reporter Dunlop who hounds the girl for a story. A cult of the miracle-hungry forms about the child. Lucia’s family – bitter mother Serafina (to be played by Isabella Rossellini) sullen father Ettore, brash older sister Rosemary, seriously ill brother Mario – is naturally frightened, then bewildered and protective. But the chief villain here is the Church: trying to get Lucia to deny her story; determined to snuff out the cult; threatening a mental institution if she doesn’t recant.

The martyrdom of a vulnerable child at the hands of a swarm of (mainly clerical) tormentors.

Producers: Ross Grayson Bell, Joshua Donen
Director: Xavier Koller
Writer: Charles Purpura
Stars Harvey Keitel, Isabella Rossellini, Anna Paquin