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Jesus

Name: Jesus
Director: Fernando Guzzoni
Released: 2016
Duration: 85 min

Representation Score

5.3/10

Fair

2016

Unrated

Director

Fernando Guzzoni

Runtime

85 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Jesús is a gritty, naturalistic character study that succeeds in deconstructing traditional social and moral hierarchies. By centering the story in Santiago, it avoids Western-centric storytelling clichés and provides a localized, authentic texture of South American youth culture. However, the film's approach to diversity is often reactive rather than proactive. While it critiques straight-centered aggression, it does so through a lens of violence that limits the ability to act of its queer characters. The representation of gender and identity is frequently tied to aimlessness or trauma. Ultimately, the film earns its score by rejecting idealized versions of adolescence. It replaces stable archetypes with raw, unvarnished depictions of social friction and emotional disconnection.

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Category Breakdown

Does Jesus have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

A queer character plays a key role in the protagonist's moral crisis, but the character's role is limited to being a victim of a violent hate crime.

How does Jesus portray gender?

Fair

The film explores aimless masculinity and transactional sexual encounters, challenging traditional patriarchal clichés by presenting the father figure as emotionally disconnected.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Jesus?

Fair

Set in Santiago, Chile, the film offers a non-Western perspective, focusing on the specific socioeconomic and cultural textures of South American youth culture.

How does Jesus represent religion and culture?

Good

The narrative challenges conventional Western morality by prioritizing individual moral crises over religious dogma, framing traditional family structures as sources of alienation.

Does Jesus include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no discernible evidence regarding the representation of physical or neurodivergent disabilities in this work.

Present on Screen

Provides a meaningful departure from homogeneous, Western-centric global cinema through its Chilean setting.
Effectively deconstructs traditional patriarchal authority by portraying the father as emotionally disconnected.
Challenges conventional moral dogmas by focusing on the subjective internal crises of its characters.

Limited or Absent

Queer characters lack ability to act, as their primary narrative function is to serve as victims of violence.
Gender representation is heavily centered on aimless masculinity and transactional sexual encounters.
The film lacks discernible representation of physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Official Synopsis

18-year-old Jesús lives with his stern, somewhat unaffectionate father in Santiago, Chile. When not doing drugs, having casual sex or simply slouching in front of the TV, Jesús and his friends perform in a K-pop boyband. But his routine is thrown into chaos one evening when he and his drunken posse viciously assault a young gay man and leave him for dead. It’s an act that propels Jesús into a profound moral crisis which have severe consequences.

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