This film tells the story of the Carbajal (or Carvajal) family and how they came to be burned at the stake in Mexico City on 8 December 1596. The Carbajals were marranos, or Jews who converted to Christianity but continued to practice Judaism. The film opens with the burial of the family's patriarch presided over by one of his sons, a Dominican friar. The friar notices that the community burial practices are odd and reports this to the Inquisition (Santo Oficio), which sets the film's plot in motion as the inquisitors do their work. As text in the closing credits tells us, the film strives not for 'the certitude of history but the verisimilitude of the fable'.
The film often moves between the two poles of history and fable: at times offering what seems like a realistic picture of New Spain in the late sixteenth century and at other times offering a mannered retelling of a timeless story à la Buñuel. The climactic scenes, about 15 minutes at the end of the film, are spectacular and bring us back with a thud firmly into reality.
Although it may not reach the heights of Ripstein's film of the previous year, Castle of Purity, The Holy Inquisition is still well worth a watch.
The film often moves between the two poles of history and fable: at times offering what seems like a realistic picture of New Spain in the late sixteenth century and at other times offering a mannered retelling of a timeless story à la Buñuel. The climactic scenes, about 15 minutes at the end of the film, are spectacular and bring us back with a thud firmly into reality.
Although it may not reach the heights of Ripstein's film of the previous year, Castle of Purity, The Holy Inquisition is still well worth a watch.