El evangelio de las Maravillas

The story that the doyen of Mexican film, Arturo Ripstein, presents us with in El evangelio de las maravillas, is apparently based on true events in the seventies but fits in perfectly with the eschatological mood of the end of the millennium. Ripstein’s ambitious and hallucinogenic film is set in the present, but has an alienating and almost medieval tone. The film is about a sect, New Jerusalem, made up of a bizarre collection of outcasts, fringe elements and religious maniacs. At the gate of the camp of tents is an officer with several soldiers, among them a cousin showing showing all the signs of homosexuality. Inside, Mama Dorita (film legend Katy Jurado) and her husband Papa Basilio (Buñuel veteran Francesco Rabal), who is addicted to old Hollywood films, preach the faith. The cult rituals seem to be a bizarre combination of Catholic processions, Third World decadence and cinematographic melodrama. The sect members profess it with conviction. When the sick Mama Dorita abdicates in favour of teenage Tomasa who is addicted to Nintendo, the rules of the group are turned upside down. Like a queen bee, Tomasa calls the men together.The wonderful design for Ripstein’s hypnotic film, together with the screenplay, which is both bizarre and humorous, give you the feeling that you were yourself once a member of this strange club.