Manuel and Clemente

Manuel and Clemente, a couple united in both intimate moments and plotting, set out to monetize miraculous apparitions. In the vicinity of El Palmar de Troya near Seville, in 1968, rumors spread that the Virgin is appearing, and the two friends seize the moment. A web of financial interests and credulity forms, easing their ascent to power: a monumental basilica, a self-styled religious order of nuns, priests, and bishops of their own, and even a pope, Gregory XVII. This satire examines the curious origins of the Palmarian Catholic Church and its singular founders.