Camino by Javier Fesser

When Javier Fesser’s Camino (2008) won six Goya awards – Spain’s most important film prize – it was inevitably going to upset some people. That has probably nothing to do with the quality of the film, which is difficult to deny, but with its taking on a controversial and sensitive subject in Spain, the highly influential Catholic group Opus Dei.

The film examines a big theme in a multi-layered way. Much is left ambiguous and it uses subtle forms to leave room for interpretation. Style and cinematography are employed cleverly, for example in looking at the reality of the girl’s sickness. It not only gets inside you by Nerea Camacho’s acting talent. The film makes the physicality and pain of her treatments unavoidable in explicit images and sounds. These are neither gratuitous nor exploitative but offer a counterpoint to the staggering statements by the Opus Dei members. They rejoice in the girl’s illness and see only what they want to see: a challenge to prove her love of God.

This group’s world view and way of life is so devoid of compassion it appears non-human, yet terrifyingly realistic at the same time. When the priests pass their cruel judgements it is simply infuriating. But what’s even more disturbing is Gloria, Camino’s mother, played by Carme Elias. She loves her daughter completely but cannot see past her world view aligned with Opus Dei. Her complexity is devastating.

Eva Sancho Rodríguez