Riders of the Sacred Blood

For over 1,000 years the Upper Swabian city of Weingarten in southwest Germany has been celebrating the Ride of the Sacred Blood. On the day after Ascension, 3000 horsemen pay homage to the Holy Relic, which is believed to contain a drop of the blood of Jesus Christ.

While similar rituals elsewhere have been reduced to folkloric popular events, here in Upper Swabia the tradition is taken very seriously. For the people of Weingarten, the Ride of the Sacred Blood is "like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost all rolled into one," as Father Nikolaus says in the film. Veneration of the Holy Relic heals the sick, gives courage to those in despair, and turns scoffers into devout believers.
With gentle irony and genuine fondness for his protagonists, Douglas Wolfsperger presents a slice of German small-town life and portrays some of the quirkiest characters in this extremely Catholic event.
Blood stands for life and for wounds, for healing and death. In the end, the portraits of the riders condense into an integral whole and leave us with a more acute sense of the transitory nature of earthly life.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH