Acceptable film in low budget which was actually shot in Garabandal and surroundings , with some unpaid amateur actors giving an enough level of belief, and some are actual from the village . June 18, 1961. In a small village in Liebana, Cantabria, Northern Spain, San Sebastián de Garabandal , four girls, Conchita, Jacinta, Mari Loli, and Mari Cruz, claim that St. Michael and the Virgin Mary have appeared to them. The village's parish priest, Fr. Valentín, and the Civil Guard brigadier , Mr. Juan Álvarez Seco , suddenly become protagonists in an overwhelming event. The teens claim to have had an apparition of Saint Michael the Archangel. Days later - on July 2, 1961 - they receive a visit from the Virgen del Carmen. After this first time, more than two thousand encounters with the heavenly Lady follow. The parish priest of the town, Don Valentín, and the Civil Guard brigade, Don Juan Álvarez Seco, will suddenly find themselves involved as protagonists in an event that overwhelms them, trying to understand where the truth lies, in the face of a perplexed hierarchy, and in the face of an ever-growing crowd of people flocking to town in search for the holy appearance .
This film is based on the testimonies of people who witnessed what happened there, but it leaves the authority of the Church to decide whether or not what happened there was a series of apparitions of the Virgin. The film was made in 28 days, with no budget and only with volunteer actors. On one hand , the town's parish priest, Mr. Valentín, starring Rafael Samino, and the Civil Guard brigadier, Mr. Juan Álvarez Seco, who plays Fernando García Linares, support the story with solvency and maturity , on the other hand the four newcomer leading actresses, Belén Garde , Teresa Carrasco, Miriam Rodríguez and Blanca Cogollud, play the four young women from the Marian Apparitions of Garabandal with panache, ease and lending great freshness and credibility , perhaps in their best interpretive work, the more complicated as well as grateful , of his fledgling artistic careers. All of the actors in the film. Their however, to the film.
It has also counted on the amateur interpretation of Javier Paredes, a professor of Contemporary History at the University of Alcalá, in the role of Monsignor Ortega, a fictional character who does not identify with any particular bishop in the history of Garabandal. Paredes, a real defender of the authenticity of the Marian Apparitions of Garabandal, affirms that these "constitute a very important key to understanding the current world" . Of the entire film, I would highlight the evolution of the Civil Guard brigade , Don Juan Álvarez Seco, who begins as an skeptic , limiting himself to protecting the girls, to progressively see their doubts shaken by the inexplicable events that he witnessed , and end up convinced that the girls are telling the truth. Juan Álvarez Seco is the actual name of a civil guard who lived through all the amazing happenings , as his testimonies can be read on the internet. Another of the surprises of this film is that none of the interpreters had previous cinematographic experience, nor do they work in the world of cinema. Practically the same can be said of almost the entire technical team including the director, Brian Jackson, for whom the project "Garabandal, only God knows them" was his first experience at this level. Another surprising fact is the filming time: the recording was carried out in twenty-seven days , an absolutely record time if factors such as the aforementioned little experience are taken into account , both from the interpreters and the technical team; the amount of extras that had to be moved; and all the changes in the costume setting that had to be anticipated ".
In other words , this is an acceptable film shot in a few days , as it didn't rely on the means of Hollywood blockbusters , but realized in short budget and by crowdfunding and with non-actors ."Garabandal, God Only Knows" is not a commercial film , that's why it was not made with the primary intention of making money, but for giving faith some surprising events happened in the Sixties that convulsed the Francoist Spain and even , nowadays has impact enough .