The Club

The “club” at the center of Pablo Larraín’s subversive feature may be exclusive, but it’s not one you’d ever want to join. In a remote Chilean fishing village, a nun looks after a group of ex-priests, all of whom have been forced into early retirement for various unmentioned sins. Ostensibly a sanctuary of “prayer and refuge,” the villa provides a serene escape from the men’s dark pasts. But when the arrival of a new member draws the attention of a sharp-eyed Jesuit investigator, the house’s many secrets threaten to come spilling out. Larraín’s pitchblack comic critique of the Catholic Church— and the barbed questions he raises about guilt, denial, and redemption—make this one of the most uncompromising, thought-provoking films of the festival.