Father Gabriel (Andrés Parra) isn’t a model Catholic priest. He likes a drink and has more than an eye for the ladies, but he loves his parish and is fiercely protective of his parishioners. Set in a small village in the Colombian mountains, Luis Alberto Restrepo’s second feature film The Passion of Gabriel focuses on an imperfect character determined to stand up for what he knows is right.
Father Gabriel is a progressive priest, an enthusiastic participant in all forms of community life. He plays football with the village boys and helps raise funds to rebuild the village’s rotten bridge, a vital contact to the outside world. But the village is precariously located, with FARC guerrillas living in the surrounding jungles and encircling military forces, who view the villagers as rebel collaborators. The village residents are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Showing the excesses of both sides of Colombia’s civil war, this film is only sympathetic to those forced to live in the middle. Father Gabriel is the ultimate man stuck in the middle- he is a priest, but he is in love with the beautiful Silvia (María Cecilia Sánchez). He is viewed with suspicion by both the guerrillas and the military and he must watch as the lives of village teenagers are harmed by both sides. His attempts to help young men recruited by FARC, and his efforts to warn the village children against the seductive lure of holding a gun are met with either annoyance or concern by the villagers, afraid of disturbing the fragile peace.
The Passion of Gabriel has an inevitability to its ending from the outset, but this takes nothing away from the compelling storytelling of co-screenwriters Luis Alberto Restrepo and Diego Vasquez Moncayo. The excellent central performance of Andrés Parra really brings the film’s powerful message home. The film asks, should you stand up and be counted or move with the prevailing powers? Father Gabriel is a refreshing character in his ability to be both flawed and honourable at the same time.
First published on the Spanish Film Festival Blog 21/05/10
