In THE GUARD, the first feature-length film by John Michael McDonagh, Brendan Gleeson played gruff small-town cop Gerry Boyle who regularly visits prostitutes, takes drugs, robs victims of crimes and returns weapons confiscated in raids to the original owner, the IRA. He shows his somewhat hostile side when he is forced to work with a African-American FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to investigate an internationl drug-smuggling ring. Boyle makes outrageous statements about African-Americans and lacks any sense of tact. But the pair find a way to work together and solve the case – Boyle is unorthodox but he isn’t corrupt.

In CALVARY McDonagh elaborates on his ususal themes. Out of a Gleeson One-Man-Show he creates an ensemble of characters to make a terrific black comedy. Brendan Gleeson as Father James Lavelle is once again fighting a solitary fight against evil. He’s a former alcoholic with a strong sense of justice and acerbic wit. The glory days of the Catholic Church are obviously over. A lonely millionaire makes the church an offer. Father James asks why this should even interest him. The landowner replied: “That would be the first time the Catholic Church that the church wasn’t interested in an offer!” Another time Lavelle meets a young girl and starts a friendly conversation with her. When her father sees her talking to the priest, he becomes hysterical and orders her into the car immediately.

The community is miserable and filled with hate. The trauma of Irish society brought on by decades of the Catholic Church covering up sexual abuse is palpable. In CALVARY everyone is traumatized and agressive – from the cynical village doctor, to the African refugee, to the young man who tells Father James he’s signing up for the army because he carries so much hate in him and believes this makes him qualified for the job. And one parishioner, who was abused as a child, plans to kill the ‘good’ priest as revenge. CALVARY (the hill where Jesus was cruxified) is the timeline of this announced death. Already in the first scene Father James learns he is to be killed. But who is the potential killer? For the viewer all the villagers are suspiscious. Without exception any one of them would be a convincing murderer. James on the other hand recognized the voice of the member of his flock who wants to kill him.

CALVARY has fantastically weird scenes and some of the oddest dialogue in cinema this year. But CALVARY is also an angry film that doesn’t delve into details, a film that pleads for reconciliation but isn’t quite so sure it’s even possible. At film’s end the viewer sees all the places in the film but now emptied of people and looking peaceful and liberated.

Hendrike Bake