The Dark Night of the Soul

Pantheon filmmaker Carlos Saura bounced back from a handful of failures with 1989s La Noche Oscura The Dark Night Juan Diego stars as San Juan de la Cruz St John of the Cross the legendary 16thcentury poetprophet 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 Writerdirector Saura manages to draw several parallels between the religious persecution of the 1700s and the political despotism of Fascist Spain