Narrative technique · used in 3 films
Setting religious belief against class, money or social structure so that faith and power collide, exposing how institutions and values shape characters' choices.
Examples
Paul Thomas Anderson · 2007
Eli Sunday is Daniel's double. Both men put on a show, both make demands and both use words to get things out of people. In their final confrontation in the bowling alley, 2 con men see each other clearly for the first time.
Where to see it: Daniel's baptism scene. Eli humiliates him in public, and Daniel accepts it as the price of a business deal. Oil and religion turn out to be the same kind of deal.
Asghar Farhadi · 2011
Nader's middle-class education and calm manner give him authority in the legal system. Razieh is working-class and strictly religious, and her testimony is heard differently. Farhadi shows how class and religion shape what the same system hears, and he never makes that system openly corrupt.
Where to see it: Razieh refusing to swear on the Quran. At this moment, her religious devotion decides the legal case and becomes a psychological trap.
Rajkumar Hirani · 2014
PK goes from one faith to the next asking for help. He visits Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim places of worship, and none of them gives him his remote back. The jokes land on how belief, money and power get tangled.
Where to see it: The search through places of worship. PK tries each faith in turn in his search to recover the remote.
Questions