Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation

La Sagrada is always going to be a spectacular building, but cinematographer Patrick Lindenmaier does an especially fine job of showing us the play of light in the cathedral's enveloping interiors.

Haupt persuades viewers to surrender to a place, to a vision, and to a scale of thinking beyond our own lives.

A paean to creative impulses, this work channels the vision of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Where Haupt succeeds is in conveying the passion felt by everyone who works on the Sagrada, from foremen to sculptors.

Employing bursts of Bach and English-language narration, this lulling, informative documentary never fully grapples with its topic’s complexity.

Stefan Haupt's (The Circle) documentary Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation explores the building's tortured history and the current efforts to bring it to fruition, but in a disappointingly dull style that fails to do justice to its outsized inspiration.