A Catholic priest is ready to hear the confession of one of the people waiting to confess. The man seems troubled by thoughts and dark memories from a young age. He cannot cope with the pressure and the daemons inside him and wants to talk about this burden, to take it out of his soul. The confession goes deep, and one thing leads to another so much as they struggle to find the importance of the number thirteen, in which the priest invokes the name of Judas the Iscariot. From this moment on, the story goes on another path.
Louis Tolleron tries in ‘Iscariote’ to make a point and highlight one of the issues that were all over the news in the past couple years. We remember how big the scandal with the Catholic Church was, and it still resurfaces occasionally. Here, Tolleron takes the whole scandal and comprises it in a two-minute short. In all fairness, it wasn’t the first film we’ve seen depicting this topic, and we were expecting the outcome Tolleron proposed. It was clear from the moment we saw the picture of the young choir boys where this story would go. So the only surprise for us was how it would get there.
Richard Mothes and Baptiste Dupuy are playing their roles impeccably, trying to raise the tension and delivering a great Tarantino-esque ending. Dupuy plays the grief of the young man trying to overcome his dark past splendidly, with a cracking voice and a thirst for vengeance. Having the upper hand when it comes to revenge, the man played by Dupuy pushes the faultiness of the priest when he says another name when he is put in front of his sins.
Despite the topic being well-worn, ‘Iscariote’ is worth watching as Tolleron expertly condenses it into a two-minute short film.
Written by Vlad A. G