Sins of the fathers

Through the decades filmmakers from assorted countries have attempted to probe the inner lives of the clergy. Pastors' lives have been approached in hushed tones, as in Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light (1963); with compassion, as in Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest (1950); and with a cutting edge, as in Luis Buñuel's Nazarin (1958). In 1994, a new wrinkle was added to the holy cloth with Antonia Bird's Priest, which not only addressed the issue of celibacy in the Catholic Church but zeroed in on homosexual love.

Now the controversial Mexican film The Crime of Father Amaro, a huge hit and a cause célèbre in its home country, delivers a broadside against corruption and hypocrisy in the church, and especially against priests who turn away from their flocks to consolidate power, be it economic, political or sexual. Though based on an 1875 Portuguese novel, director Carlos Carrera's film is full of contemporary resonances.

The film begins on a rickety bus where an old man who is carrying his life savings in a purse tells a younger man about his hopes for the future. The bus is robbed and the old man loses everything. When the bus arrives in the small village of Los Reyes, the young man compassionately gives the old man the little money he has.