by Paul Matheson

Calvary is a dramatic thriller suffused with jet-black humour. Father James is a good man, called to priesthood late in life after the death of his wife, and now the priest of a rural Irish parish. The film opens in the confessional, with an unseen local telling Father James that he has one week to live before the hidden parishioner kills him in vengeance for abuse he suffered as a boy at the hands of another Catholic priest. The parishioner knows Father James is a good priest but has decided to kill him anyway. With only seven days to say his goodbyes and find the potential killer, Father James tries to mend his relationship with his troubled daughter and visits members of the community who have in different ways abandoned the teachings of Christ and the Church. Father James’s conversations with the locals are often amusing, sometimes lewd or chilling, and occasionally very poignant.