The Club (2015)

A crisis counselor is sent by the Catholic Church to a small Chilean beach town where disgraced priests and nuns, suspected of crimes ranging from child abuse to baby-snatching from unwed mothers, live secluded, after an incident occurs.

Director:

Pablo Larraín

Writers:

Guillermo Calderón, Pablo Larraín

Stars:

Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 15 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Alfredo Castro	...	Padre Vidal
Roberto Farías	...	Sandokan
Antonia Zegers	...	Hermana Mónica
Marcelo Alonso	...	Padre García
Jaime Vadell	...	Padre Silva
Alejandro Goic	...	Padre Ortega
Alejandro Sieveking	...	Padre Ramírez
José Soza	...	Padre Lazcano
Francisco Reyes	...	Padre Alfonso
Diego Muñoz	...	Surfista
Gonzalo Valenzuela	...	Surfista
Catalina Pulido	...	Surfista
Paola Lattus	...	Mujer de Sandokan
Erto Pantoja	...	Dueño de Perro
Felipe Ríos	...	Dueño de Perro

Storyline

A crisis counselor is sent by the Catholic Church to a small Chilean beach town where disgraced priests and nuns, suspected of crimes ranging from child abuse to baby-snatching from unwed mothers, live secluded, after an incident occurs.

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Plot Keywords:

beach | priest | catholic church | counselor | nun | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Chile

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

5 November 2015 (Germany)

Also Known As:

The Club

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,514 (USA) (5 February 2016)

Gross:

$29,756 (USA) (19 February 2016)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fabula

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Pablo Larraín is also director and producer of No (2012) and writer and director of Post Mortem (2010), among other well known chilean films.

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Connections

Featured in 73rd Golden Globe Awards (2016)

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Soundtracks

Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor BWV 1011: IV Sarabande
Written by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performed by 'Robert Cohen'

User Reviews

An Eye for an Eye

Pablo Larraín's "El club" (2015) is a well-made film, but in the end it seems like a crowd pleaser for culture-freak cinéphiles. Not only did I find the subject a little trite (effects of sexual abuse of boys by priests) and gruesome, for all the situations that I witnessed that were truer, and sometimes as excessive and pathetic as the case shown here, during the 12 years I spent in a school ruled by Augustinian Recollects; but I also found there is a lack of compassion in its treatment of behaviors and the story, and a bit sensationalism and rudeness without necessity, when in cases like this of all sexual orientations, the most adequate keyword seems to be compassion. But in the end everybody has the right to make personal interpretations of such matters, although I still insist that there are too many stereotyped traits in the exposition of the victim and the victimizers. I do not know if what we see are consequences of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorial regime, but there is something crudely realistic, in morbid and sordid ways, in the characters and situations of the four films by Larraín that I have seen, in which we do not perceive the (also clichéd, if you will) joy of living that we all need to go on. And it's one film after the other, in which -- in spite of the masterful execution-- when they end, one would rather be dead and gone!