The Club: Chile’s past accompanied by opaque religious elements

The Club is troubling on every level, the apparent reconciliation of its conclusion – rendered in, and reflected by, acts of religion that can’t help articulating spiritual purpose even when the context in which they appear is corrupted – as much driven by compromise as by the resolving will of any higher power, either secular (in the sense of righting the world) or sacred (in forgiving it). No easy Easter film of new beginnings, this: the troubled past of Larrain’s Chile looks set to endure a long time yet, the darkness as visible here as in any of the director’s films to date.