It is tempting but insufficient to parse Nazarin as a satire.
Buñuel is capable of biting, even scathing satire when he looses his wrath and indignation towards the hyporcritical. He may even be capable of conveying scorn towards the sincere believers, such as Viridiana, who assume that being a good Catholic means accepting victimhood. But Nazarin, while painfully funny at times is, at others, simply painful. It shows how a good priest, with good intentions, can easily be misunderstood. It shows how people are capable of receiving good and misinterpreting it or incessantly trying to turn it to their own good.
Some might argue that it is problematic to have the take of a self-professed atheist in a list of spiritual classics, but at times intellectual honesty requires hearing full-throated denial, even dismissive contempt. Rare is the leader or person who can not simply attack the messenger (easy enough to do), but rather sift the criticism from the imperfect vessel and find the hard kernels of truth in it that, if ignored, could gnaw away at the heart of faith. — Kenneth R. Morefield
- Directed by: Luis Buñuel
- Produced by: Federico Amérigo Manuel Barbachano Ponce
- Written by: Julio Alejandro Luis Buñuel Benito Pérez Galdós Emilio Carballido
- Music by: Rodolfo Halffter
- Cinematography by: Gabriel Figueroa
- Editing by: Carlos Savage
- Release Date: 1959
- Running Time: 94
- Language: Spanish
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