After having made some fairly successful films (Huella de luz, 1943; El clavo, 1944), Rafael Gil (1913-1986) grew into a leading exponent of Spanish political-religious cinema of the 1940s and 50s, with titles such as La Señora de Fátima (1951) and La guerra de Dios (1953; awarded a prize at the first San Sebastián

Film Festival). His notable Cold War double-bill consisted of Murió hace quince años (1954) – about a boy who gets a political education in the Soviet Union and returns to Spain with an order to assassinate his father – and El canto del gallo (1955). Both films have in the leading role none other than Francisco Rabal, only a couple of years before his supreme interpretations in two films by Buñuel, NazarÍn and Viridiana.

Here are the film’s events: the convent where Father Muller lives is stormed by Communist soldiers who shoot its religious inhabitants, although the Father manages to escape. He is taken prisoner, and denies that he is a priest three times, in an obvious parallel with the denial of Jesus Christ by his disciple Peter. Muller is taken before a Communist officer, Gans, an old friend of his, but who now hates priests. Gans obliges Muller to write a letter confirming that he deceived people during his years as a priest.

It’s a remarkable film about the inner landscapes of anti-Communism and the political-poetical labyrinths of history and religious hallucination. Gil later directed folkloric and commercial films, such as Currito de la Cruz (1965) and El relicario (1969), and literary adaptations, for example, El mejor alcalde, el rey (1973).

Peter von Bagh, incorporating material from the Catalogo Fes- tival de San Sebastián 1996