Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín’s (Post Mortem, No, Tony Manero) incendiary fifth feature The Club won the Grand Prix at the Berlinale, is the Chilean entry for Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Oscars, is up for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes and has already garnered five star reviews from UK press including the Guardian and Time Out.
It follows four Catholic priests, shipped off to a seaside monastery in Chile following various venial transgressions; whose cosy exile on the coast is rudely interrupted by charges of molestation. Fearing yet another scandal, higher-ups in the Church send a pious younger priest – Father Garcia – to interrogate and counsel his elders. But this task will prove more arduous than anyone expects.
Full of a mordant black humour that perversely works to underline the severity of the issues at stake, The Club is an incisive, damning assessment of corruption and abuse within the Catholic Church.