I watched Simon of the Desert (1969), directed by Luis Buñuel, for the first time. It's about 45 minutes long. Filmed in Mexico, it's in spanish.
It's loosely based on the story of the ascetic 5th-century saint Simeon Stylites, who lived for 39 years on top of a pillar. Monks, peasants, his mother, and Satan in the form of an attractive woman come to talk and (as he implies) tempt him.
What a curiosity! This is a film that many claim to be a surreal satire of the Christian religion/Catholicism, and yet feels so... accurate to the emotional realities of being a human, a sinner, even a saint.
It's a film made by an alleged atheist, and yet it doesn't feel like one.
Is humanistic the right word here?
Only, the last scene feels surreal, and it seems most don't know what to make of it; the transition to it stunned me, absolutely stunned me.
It took me until looking at IMDB audience reviews to even see what was supposed to be satire! I took it completely seriously. Perhaps I'm a fool.
When looking around for information, I found out that the woman who played Satan literally died about 5 days ago!
Fascinating film.