Pantheon filmmaker Carlos Saura bounced back from a handful of failures with 1989's La Noche Oscura (The Dark Night). Juan Diego stars as San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross), the legendary 16th-century poet-prophet. Galvanized into action by the spirit of Santa Teresa de Jesus, San Juan fought to install reforms in the Carmelite Order. Like many another visionary, he was regarded as a heretic, and promptly subjected to the most appalling of tortures. Writer-director Saura manages to draw several parallels between the religious persecution of the 1700s and the political despotism of Fascist Spain.
Similiar movies
The Last Temptation of Christ
Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt.
Paul, Apostle of Christ
Risking his life, Luke ventures to Rome to visit Paul -- the apostle who's bound in chains and held captive in Nero's darkest and bleakest prison cell. Haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds, Paul wonders if he's been forgotten as he awaits his grisly execution. Before Paul's death, Luke resolves to write another book that details the birth of what will come to be known as the church.
Mary Magdalene
In the first century, free-spirited Mary Magdalene flees the marriage her family has arranged for her, finding refuge and a sense of purpose in a radical new movement led by the charismatic, rabble-rousing preacher named Jesus.
The Milky Way
Two drifters go on a pilgrimage from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way, they hitchhike, beg for food, and face the Christian dogmas and heresies from different Ages.
Flavia the Heretic
Puglia, southern Italy, around 1400. A convent is invaded by the Tarantula cult, whose fanatical and crazed members desecrate the sacred place by committing obscene and bloody acts.
The Priest
Obsessed with fantasies of sex, Father Miguel seeks professional help through his church but they are not listening; thus leaving the Father in a dilemma; leaving the church or should he try, on his own, to surrender to these temptations?
Apostle Peter and the Last Supper
The film portrays Saint Peter reflecting on his time with Jesus and his fellow Apostles during his final imprisonment in Rome. In particular, Peter attempts to convert one of his jailers, Martinian, by relating the life, teachings, and sacrifice of Jesus.
Theresa: The Body of Christ
In the 16th century, the daughter of a Spanish nobleman joins a convent and becomes a spiritual leader.
The Apostate
A young man navigates the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church when he tries to renounce his faith.
The Apostle Peter: Redemption
Tormented by his denial of Christ, Peter spent his life attempting to atone for his failures. Now as he faces certain death at the hand of Nero, will he falter again, his weakness betray him or will he rise up triumphant in his final moment?
Lourdes
The young, sickly girl Bernadette comes from a poverty-stricken family. When the Virgin Mary appears to her in a cavern near Lourdes, no one takes the girl seriously, even when she digs up a wellspring at the Virgin's instructions The local authorities even try to hush up the entire incident. In vain, however, because when Empress Eugénie requests water from the spring for her sickly son, they are forced to acquiesce. And even the local priest is finally convinced. While taking his tuberculosis-stricken fiancé Claire to a sanatorium, the young doctor Henri Guillaumet meets Bernadette. The water from Lourdes' spring heals Claire's disease overnight, but the scientist in Henri doubts the miracle and wants to expose Bernadette as a liar. It is not until Henri again meets Bernadette, who has in the meantime become a nun and works as a nurse, that he finds a way to balance belief and modern science. And his love for Claire is strengthened as well.
Flame in the Wind
Set in the splendor and terror of the Spanish Inquisition, Flame in the Wind tells the story of Carlos, an earnest young nobleman who is faced with a choice: the church system offers safety, protection, and respectability; the Scriptures offer Christ and salvation from sin—and with these torture and death.
Saint Paul
Paul's epistles covering his conversion from Saul of Tarsus to his ministry to the Gentiles.
Similiar TV Shows
Warrior
A gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs.
The Young Pope
Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican.
Moral Orel
Orel is an 11-year-old boy who loves church. His unbridled enthusiasm for piousness and his misinterpretation of religious morals often lead to disastrous results, including self-mutilation and crack addiction. No matter how much trouble he gets into, his reverence always keeps him cheery.
Gunpowder, Treason & Plot
Mini series depicting the turbulent and bloody reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots and her son King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot.
Peter and Paul
Peter and Paul assume leadership of the Church as they struggle against violent opposition to the teachings of Christ and their own personal conflicts.
Teresa de Jesús
Teresa de Jesús is a 1984 film mini-series that premiered on Spanish television in 1984. It presents the life of Teresa of Avila, a Spanish saint, mystic, and doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. Its dialogue is in Spanish, but versions with English subtitles are available. The film stars Concha Velasco as Teresa. Also appearing are Gonzalo Abril as Lorenzo de Cepeda, María Massip as Juana Suárez, Francisco Rabal as Peter of Alcantara, Héctor Alterio, and Marina Saura as another nun. It tells the story of Teresa's life from age 23 until her death at age 67.
Instinto
Marco Mur is an attractive, successful businessman, but a trauma from his past prevents him from getting emotionally involved with women. Instead, he has intimate encounters in a club where no one knows anyone else. But his past returns and now Marco must face it and all the other conflicts of his life.
Midnight Mass
An unsettling omen washes ashore in the wake of the storm. Later, when the locals gather for a potluck, tragedy strikes – and a miracle occurs.
Maradona, Blessed Dream
The controversial life and history of Argentine football legend Diego Armando Maradona. From his beginnings in Villa Fiorito, one of the poorest barrios of Buenos Aires, to achieving glory on the international football league. Earning himself a well-deserved place in history. Living a life strewn with drugs, sex and public scrutiny, he played by his own rules regardless of the consequences. Watch the man who took the world by storm and made his way into the hearts of millions.
Jesus
The film is notable for presenting a more human Jesus, compared to more solemn portrayals in earlier films; here Jesus laughs and cries like anyone else. Among other things, he weeps at Joseph’s funeral, throws stones in Lake Galilee when meeting Simon Peter and James son of Zebedee for the first time, dances at the wedding at Cana, and starts a water-splashing fight with his disciples as well. Satan is portrayed as a man in modern dress (and as a woman in red). During his temptation of Jesus, he shows him the Earth from the vantage point of space. Satan also shows Jesus images of wars and destruction carried out in his name. The film adds an apocryphal Roman historian named “Livio” who watches and comments as events unfold; he is presumably named after Livy.