The Golden Hand

Son of an Italian immigrant mason in the west of France in the 1920s, Celino, 78 years of age, is today an important person, a distinguished personality, in his village situated in the south of Mayenne. This, despite the fact that the ten-children strong family’s integration was not without obstacles. For a long time, his parents and the rest of the family were up against the entire village’s hostility, where his father had set up his own business. The region was known for its conservatism and the inhabitants had practically ostracised the whole family. Even so, Celino signed up with the FFI in 1943 to defend his adopted country. His life then underwent a drastic change: like his Italian maternal grandfather he discovered that he had the gifts of a healer and clairvoyant. The same people who once rejected him would soon come knocking at the door of the little house where he exercised his gift. Decades passed and Celino’s reputation has spread at least over four regions. He is a member of the Municipality Council, that one cannot miss. (“The entire village has been under his treatment” say the people of his town. Pierre Guicheney gives us the portrait of this exceptional man. A flamboyant film.