There’s little doubt that the Catholic organisation, Opus Dei, feels a bit aggrieved. For years they’ve been battling rumours of being a cult-like operation that completely takes over followers lives, as well as openly approving of celibate member whipping themselves as punishment for their sins. They also had The Da Vinci Code to contend with, which featured albino Opus Dei monk Silas, who took the self flagellation to extremes and went around murdering people in order to keep the church’s secrets safe.
And that’s pretty much all that most people know about the group. However they’re keen to change people’s views with a new movie about their founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, who was canonised in 2002. He set up Opus Dei in 1928 as a way for Catholics to learn to sanctify themselves without abandoning secular life, bringing God into everything they do (although it’s this strictness over people’s lives, combined with its secrecy, that’s caused controversy).
Opus Dei has now brought in Roland Joffe, director of The Mission, to helm their movie about Escriva, titled There Be Dragons. While Dei is financing the movie themselves, Joffe has said it isn’t a propaganda project and that he’ll be given creative space to make the film he wants to. That said, it’s difficult to imagine him doing a hatchet job on the organisation, which will presumably maintain some control to ensure the film has a tone and message that agrees with their beliefs.
Quite how they’ll deal with the fact Escriva is said to have sided with Franco in the Spanish Civil War and allegedly spoke positively about Hitler, is yet to be known (although others have said these allegations aren’t true).
Whatever the film ends up being like, it’s not likely to assuage critics who are wary of the group’s recruiting practices, who are bound to see the film as a two-hour promo.