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.

I had the pleasure these days to watch El santo oficio (The Holy Inquisition) - a fine drama, well played and made, that got everything the dark ages can provide: inquisition, plague, death, fear, treason. The one special ingredient of the movie is that the story is placed in Mexico (under the rule of the Spanish monarchy, of course) and not in Spain itself. The cast does very well, the production is pro - a gem for the right kind of audience, for every connoisseur interested in that special period of time. Strongly, recommended if you like such movies as The Name of the Rose, Flame in the Wind, or La Reine Margot for example.