| SYNOPSIS
Young
Amaro, a recently ordained priest goes to Los Reyes to help father
Benito, with the duties of the temple. In the town, father Amaro
meets Amelia, a beautiful, young and sensual 16 year-old girl, with
whom he'll end up falling in love. Before, he finds out that father
Benito has a long time affair with Sanjuanera, who happens to be
Amelia's mother.
Father
Amaro doesn't just discover the secret love life of father Benito,
he also finds out about more serious problems: apparently father
Benito receives financial help from Chato Aguilar, the most important
drug lord of the region. Also, another priest from the diocese,
father Natalio, is suspected of helping and encouraging a guerrilla.
These "secrets" are revealed in a newspaper article written
by Ruben, who used to be Amelia's boyfriend, and now resents Amaro.
A huge scandal is unleashed. But the diocese, with father Amaro's
aid, manages to contain it, by making the newspaper publish a refusal.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Notes
From the Director
In
1875, the Portuguese author Eça de Queiroz wrote the novel
"El Crimen del Padre Amaro,” a fictional account of religious
betrayal and corruption that shakes a small Mexican village to its
core. Presently, a number of Mexican cities face circumstances similar
to those described in the book, as do parishes across America and
Europe. Despite councils, committees, and attempts to otherwise
cleanse themselves of wrongdoings, the Church is not always a perfect
model of service and devotion.
Celibacy
is one of the oldest and most controversial tenets of the priesthood.
It is a difficult precept to follow because being an ordained priest
does not, of course, exempt a man from natural impulses. Priests
are men, infinitely fallible, with desires the same as any other.
This personal war and the wider battlefield of the Church struggling
with its duties is, to me, the crux of EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO
In
the film, there are two important relationships: the dangerously
passionate connection between Father Amaro and Amelia, and the equally
devastating one between Father Amaro and the Church. Though liberal
priests such as Amaro strive to be effective spiritual guides, there
are conservative sectors of the Church who seek to defend and expand
their power.
EL
CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO is the story of a good soul, a young priest
with pure intentions and faith, who gradually falls into corruption.
Father Amaro trades his religious and personal integrity for the
promise of a better political position within the Institution. His
generosity and wealth of spirit become egotism and bitterness.
The
film tries to give Amaro a voice. EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO is less
concerned with the outer wickedness of the characters, and more
with the complexity of human motivations. Father Amaro exhibits
contradictory passions: he desires to embrace the most needy, but
he does not wish to disobey the corrupt dispositions of the Dioceses
to whom he answers. Ultimately, Amaro betrays himself with his own
ambition.
By
accepting cash from drug lords, Father Benito participates in the
crime of money laundering but, because he uses the money for works
of charity, he convinces himself that his actions are not religious
or legal transgressions. He is in further opposition with his beliefs
through his love for Sanjuanera and the breaking of his own vows
of chastity.
EL
CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO interests me for its human reach, and the
possibilities that it offers to demonstrate the complexities of
human motives. The film is more than a battleground for good and
evil—it sets a magnifying glass to the fibers from which human
beings are weaved.
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