The Catholic School (2021)
La scuola cattolica
Film details
Crime · Thriller · Drama · History · Stefano Mordini · 1h 47min
Synopsis
Three well-off young men—former students at Rome’s prestigious all-boys Catholic high school San Leone Magno—brutally tortured, raped, and murdered two young women in 1975. The event, which came to be known as the Circeo massacre, shocked and captivated the country, exposing the violence and dark underbelly of the upper middle class at a moment when the traditional structures of family and religion were seen as under threat.
Verdict
Raw reconstruction of an atrocious crime. Only for adults with formed discernment.
In-depth analysis
The Catholic School reconstructs one of the most brutal crimes of 1970s Italy: the Circeo massacre, where three young men from affluent families kidnapped, raped, and tortured two women. The film uses this real case as a scalpel to expose the hypocrisy of a social class that conceals violence and misogyny beneath a veneer of respectability and religious education. The director does not shy away from the rawness: sexual violence is present, though handled with technical restraint rather than gratuitous display. The underlying conflict is moral and social, not theological: the work denounces how classism, machismo, and repressive education can coexist with the facade of Christian values. It is not an attack on Catholic faith per se, but rather on the instrumentalization of religion as a mask for privilege. However, it requires extreme maturity: the content is disturbing, sexual violence is a narrative cornerstone, and the tone is somber without redemptive relief. The film holds merit as a denunciation of social hypocrisy, but due to its explicit nature and the emotional weight of the material, it is not recommended.