Spanish cinema returns to the paedophile priest and evil bishops formula with 'La Luz'
The new film 'La Luz' reopens the debate on church abuse and propaganda in state-subsidised Spanish cinema. Fed-up audiences or legitimate denunciation?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
La Luz: Spanish cinema returns to the same formula of paedophile priest and evil bishops
The poster for the film 'La Luz', which opens this weekend, promised a different story. Reading the synopsis was enough to find yet another variation on the same pattern: a gai priest who covers up child abuse and clashes with a corrupt church hierarchy. Beyond film criticism, the debate has become a thermometer of the culture war dividing Spain.
Some see the film as a necessary denunciation of abuse in the Church, backed by the last two popes. Others are simply fed up. 'Enough with gays, whores and the civil war', sums up one of the most repeated voices. The criticism is not aimed at the specific plot, but at a model of cinema that, according to its detractors, repeats the same formulas to obtain public subsidies.
The role of the public media
Presenter Xabi Fortes devoted 20 minutes of his show on La Sens to promoting the film. For many, that is the smoking gun: the film is not trying to tell a story, but to indoctrinate. The predictable result is that few will go and see it, but its propagandistic effect on a captive audience can be significant.
Almost in parallel, comparisons have resurfaced with Spanish cinema of the 70s and 80s, the cinema of Berlanga, Ozores or even Almodóvar. Today that cinema competes with products that, in the critics' view, are more propaganda than art. At this rate, the only cinema to survive will be the kind that tells the powers that be what they want to hear.
Related discussions in the forum
The poster for the film 'La Luz', which opens this weekend, promised a different story. Reading the synopsis was enough to find yet another variation on the same pattern: a gai priest who covers up child abuse and clashes with a corrupt church hierarchy. Beyond film criticism, the debate has become a thermometer of the culture war dividing Spain.
Some see the film as a necessary denunciation of abuse in the Church, backed by the last two popes. Others are simply fed up. 'Enough with gays, whores and the civil war', sums up one of the most repeated voices. The criticism is not aimed at the specific plot, but at a model of cinema that, according to its detractors, repeats the same formulas to obtain public subsidies.
The role of the public media
Presenter Xabi Fortes devoted 20 minutes of his show on La Sens to promoting the film. For many, that is the smoking gun: the film is not trying to tell a story, but to indoctrinate. The predictable result is that few will go and see it, but its propagandistic effect on a captive audience can be significant.
Almost in parallel, comparisons have resurfaced with Spanish cinema of the 70s and 80s, the cinema of Berlanga, Ozores or even Almodóvar. Today that cinema competes with products that, in the critics' view, are more propaganda than art. At this rate, the only cinema to survive will be the kind that tells the powers that be what they want to hear.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (16 replies).
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