The Club (2015)

Most of the time, films don’t need extravagant and excessively explicit stories to expose the darkness that constantly surrounds human beings. The deepest mysteries and fissures of society can be unleashed without excessive resources. Sometimes, the right formula can be achieved with a tiny house and a handful of masterfully sculpted characters. These humble scenarios are enough to get the viewer involved into the most abominable corners of the human mind.

Pablo Larraín is one of Chile’s most acclaimed contemporary filmmakers. After the success achieved in his previous films about Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, such as Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012); Larraín delights us again with The Club, a film that encompasses his return to incisive and scathing cinema. The Club is a sordid and disturbing story that involves priests, victims and abettors. Once again, the filmmaker uses the power of cinema as a social weapon. The story focuses on four senior priests, commanded by Father Vidal (Alfredo Castro). They live in a tiny house on the gray Chilean coast of La Boca. Sister Mónica (Antonia Zegers) also lives there, her duty consists on taking care of them and their “penance”. All five are “retired”, each one carries abominable pasts and seek for redemption. They constantly pray, drink alcohol, and train a greyhound for lucrative purposes. At first, nothing is clear; everything is ambiguous and nebulous. The uncertain universe is accentuated with the grayish color palette of the film. Inside the coastal house, we feel the essence of something chilling that floats in the air, a breath of perversion that never leaves. With great narrative skill, we gradually discover the sinister personal traits, vices and mysteries of each character.

The club’s peaceful routine is interrupted with the sudden appearance of a fifth priest. The arrival of Father Matías (José Soza) instinctively annoys the members of the club. This unexpected visit is a reminder of something that has forced the priests into retirement, a dark secret that has been buried for a long time. The rejection of Matías will be fully justified when a humble and mentally ill fisherman appears drunk outside the coastal house. The fisherman Sandokán (Roberto Farías) recognized Father Matías when he saw the priest pass by in the car that took him to the house. In one of the film’s most bone-chilling scenes, Sandokán begins to scream (with the monotony of someone praying a biblical litany) sordid and bristling details of how Father Matías abused him as a child. Terrified that someone from the town will realize what’s happening, the priests give Matías a weapon to shoot into the air and scare Sandokán. Visibly upset, Matías comes out and instead of doing what they suggest, the priest shoots himself. The unexpected tragedy immediately demands the arrival of Father García (Marcelo Alonso), a sociology expert. Father García will try to unravel the enigma in which all the habitants of the house seem to be immersed, confronting their gruesome pasts and imposing disciplinary rules on them. In order to look after the interests of the Church, he should close down the coastal house. Father García’s faith and commitment to his religion will be furiously challenged.

By now, we all should know that the Catholic Church has been the subject of multiple scandals for giving protection to countless priests who had carried out indecent practices, especially child abuse. It is, without a doubt, a thorny issue that requires an adequate addressment. It’s very easy to fall into sensationalism or dramatic excesses that distort this topic. Fortunately, Larraín doesn’t make those mistakes, the filmmaker isn’t interested in portraying a church that spreads light, courage and love. He is focusing on the church that remains shrouded in darkness. This cowardly church keeps horrible miseries under the rug and constantly ignores them. The Club is a film where all the characters are victims, in different ways, of the flawed institution. There is no possibility of redemption when there isn’t even the slightest sense of guilt between the priests involved in the story. Most of them have twisted the facts to the point of deformation and distortion. More than a complaint, The Club is an obscure, unsettling and necessary portrait. Without a doubt, it will haunt your thoughts for a long time. In Danish philosopher and theologist Søren Kierkegaard’s words:
“Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.”

by Octavio Carbajal González