Forms of Belief in Chilean Cinema

Abstract

Figures related to religion or metaphysical belief have repeatedly appeared in films during a hundred years of Chilean cinema. Catholicism as a social power and source of morality insists, in fiction and documentary works, through the figure of the priest. However, the function of the priest does not surpass a dramatic element or a confrontation of the argument with History. This article delves critically and aesthetically into these issues, searching a cinematic consciousness (via spatial, temporal and audiovisual aspects) that may expose the religious to the metaphysical; this search is found in recent films.