A group of exiled priests find their clandestine existence rudely interrupted in this stunning and dark allegory of the abuses of the Catholic Church from Chilean writer-director Pablo Larraín.
Clothes do not make the monk in Pablo Larraín’s grippingly sinister portrait of four very bad Chilean priests.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2015
The Club 2015
El club
In films as different and inventive as Tony Manero and No, Chilean writer-director Pablo Larraín has been singularly successful in framing Chilean subjects in ways that have resonated internationally. In the blackly funny The Club he turns his sights on the Catholic Church and “offers up a morosely comic and deeply sacrilegious portrait of four priests exiled to the outskirts of their faith, where they lead an existence that’s closer to the exploits of the Soprano family than to anything authorized by the Vatican.” — Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter
“This tart, smart and consistently surprising blend of ultra-serious material and darkly comic execution looks set to catapult Larraín… into the front rank of international arthouse filmmakers…
The Club is a bold and bracing allegory of a church tainted by scandals – most notably pedophile sexual abuse by priests and related cover-ups – and undergoing painful but overdue reform under the current pontiff. Indeed, given His Holiness’ flair for publicity and embrace of modernity, it’s no stretch to imagine the picture becoming compulsory viewing for all bishops across the planet.” — Neil Young, Indiewire