PastorelaMovies like Pastorela
- Key Features:
- Christmas, Satire, Religious conflict, Small town, Comedy, Devil, Good versus evil, Cultural tradition
- Tone:
- satirical, humorous
- Target Audience:
- Comedy lovers, Satire fans, Christmas movie viewers, Cultural film enthusiasts
- Emotional Arc:
- Amusement → Conflict → Resolution
Pastorela

Agent Jesus Juarez (aka Chucho) has always played the Devil in his town's Nativity Play. This Christmas, when the new pastor of the church recasts the role, the two men engage in a battle between good and evil.
Pastorela
Young priest Father Sebastián is assigned to a parish in San Jeronimo el Alto, where he is not welcomed by the community, particularly the resident priest Father Damián. The newcomer gradually earns the trust of the people through humor, but firmly captures their hearts by saving the town fiesta by fighting a bull when the hired torero failed to show. Father Sebastián counsels the townspeople, lecturing them on their duties in a modern society. He used the collection plate to redistribute the town's wealth more evenly.

Pitch, the mean-spirited devil, is trying to ruin Christmas. Santa Claus teams up with Merlin the Magician and the children of the world in order to save the day!

Everyone knows that being a teenager is not easy, especially when you are a demigod with unlimited powers and risking being crucified at any moment, this is the life of Jesus Christ in his new school.

Jesus, who's hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos.

Set on the small island of Porto Buio, the traditional live Christmas Nativity scene might not go ahead because the baby who’s always played Jesus has grown up and no new babies have been born on the island in years! With this fundamental tradition on the line, newly elected Mayor Cecco (Claudio Bisio) wants to ask the local Tunisian community to “borrow” one of their children, but there’s conflict between the two communities. Cecco enlists the help of local Islam convert Bilal (Alessandro Gassman) to cross the cultural divide… but both communities are not sure what to make of a baby Jesus that may need his nationality, and even his religion changed!

Checo and Chuma decide to use their criminal skills to do good and help people. Along the way, they learn that friendship and love are more than just clichés.

Energetic priest Don Camillo returns to the town of Brescello for more political and personal duels with Communist mayor Peppone.

Follows Diogenes as he goes about his day as a police officer. He's prone to do things the right way, surrounded by a pretty much corrupt & citizen distant police department, & always resolves his duties with a personal method.

In a small Spanish town, during the Christmas holidays, a group of rich old ladies organize a peculiar event that consists of inviting a homeless person to sit down to dinner at their wealthy table. Plácido, a humble worker, is hired by the organizers to participate in a parade with his three-wheeled vehicle, a seemingly simple mission that will not be easy for him to accomplish.

The story revolves around a Basque Roman Catholic priest dedicated to committing as many sins as possible, a death metal salesman from Carabanchel, and the Italian host of a TV show on the occult. These go on a literal "trip" through Christmas-time Madrid to hunt for and prevent the reincarnation of the Antichrist.

Bitter, grumpy patriarch Don Servando and his family travel to spend Christmas with Doña Alicia, a relative who becomes his "ultimate nemesis". It may be Christmas, but Don Servando is set on proving to everyone that Doña Alicia is a terrible person.

Christmas is coming. The children accidentally break a Nativity scene figurine from their father's collection and must by all means get an equal one, the problem is that it is a unique antique piece. Sara, the eldest daughter breaks up with her boyfriend, Ocho, who will try to recover her favors with the help of her father-in-law, Javier. Precisely Javier's father-in-law, Marisa's father, will be welcomed into the family home to spend the holidays after her recent separation, which will not leave Javier's mother, Milagros, indifferent. Rocío, the folklore of the family, who has been playing the Virgin for several Christmases, is relegated this year to playing the shepherdess, something that her father, Javier, is not willing to assume.

The Three Wise Men, fed up with Santa taking more and more prominence from them, have decided to confront each other without knowing that this war will awaken a much more dangerous common enemy, the Krampus, who had been inactive for centuries.

While leading a police investigation of a massacre in a public school at the border of Mexico and U.S.A, special Agent Emanuel Ritter links this strange case to the coming and rising of the ancient demon Belzebuth. But in order to stop the trail of upcoming infanticides, Ritter shall have to confront himself before dealing with the forces of good and evil.

Live action feature based on the Mexican comic about the exploits of a witch living in the outskirts of 'Bondojia', when a ruthless small time politician tries to steal their land in order to build a luxurious condo.

When Carlos invites his father and his brother to spend a pleasant New Year in a strange house isolated in the forest with him and his wife Ana. But what promised to be a quiet family dinner, suddenly is interrupted by the presence of a peculiar vagabond, dwarf and very bad man, who claims to be God.

A peaceful Christmas Eve is interrupted when a thief breaks into a villa. When the family’s little daughter mistakes him for Santa Claus and asks him to fulfill her Christmas wish, he will be forced to perform a miracle that will redeem secrets from the past.

Ignacio, a disrespected cook at a Mexican monastery, can barely afford to feed the orphans who live there. Inspired by a local wrestling hero, he decides to moonlight as the not-so-famous Luchador "Nacho Libre" to earn money for the monastery -- not to mention the admiration of beautiful nun Sister Encarnación.

Paul, charged with directing his school's Nativity play, falsely boasts that his ex-girlfriend plans to turn the production into a film.

Four carolling children meet Jesus and Santa Claus and learn the true meaning of Christmas.

It's been some time since Father Jebedaiah Mayii exorcised the Devil from little Nancy Aglet, who is now grown up with a husband and two children of her own. But the prince of darkness wants to go a second round and has returned to repossess her! With Father Mayii unwilling to help, Father Luke Brophy tries his best to help Nancy, even when TV's Ernest Weller plans to air the exorcism live on TV.

After being deported back to Mexico, a man has no choice but to join the vicious drug cartel that has corrupted his hometown in order to survive.

Don Camillo (now bishop) and Peppone (now senator) return to the town of Brescello and rekindle their friendly rivalry.

In paradise, a group gathers to discuss why people still act selfishly, even though Jesus sacrificed himself for them 2,000 years ago. As a result, a new Messiah is sent to Earth to address the issue.

After his grandfather's death, a man travels with his wife and kids to his hometown, where chaos ensues with his relatives over the inheritance.

Roberto makes a pact with the devil to please his multiple lovers sexually, Satan accepts the deal but promises to snatch his soul when he finds true love. Meanwhile, two cops are on the lookout for those responsible of a murderous drug on the streets.

Scheming of a way to save their father's ranch, the Alvarez brothers find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord.

Cantinflas is a unique barber, who trades with an elderly neighbor, a lawyer by profession, laws lessons in exchange for haircuts and shaved. It proposes advice to defend in court the disadvantaged neighborhood. His success deputy seeks the votes as the other candidate, Don Próculo, it is not accepted by anyone but his own bodyguards. Don Próculo will use know how much ruse to win the election by the Council, and also for the love of 'Sarita'

The second coming is upon us, and Jesus has returned to earth. But before he can get down to the serious business of judging the living and the dead, he has to contend with an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight.

A group of young people leave a disco and bump into a shepherd who is ready to spend his night worshipping Satan.

A young man seeking a father he has never met, through no fault of his own, ends up barricaded in a liquor store with five other people on Christmas Eve in the fictitious town of El Camino, NV.

Oscar and Arthur are two actors without fortune who survive unemployment with a routine street, where one represents the thief and the other to the police. Thanks to this performance are "hired" by Mr. Mauricio Tavares to play a practical joke on dangerous Don Antonio Robledo, a senior executive who suffer a fictional kidnapping for later culminate in a surprise party.

While a sixteen year old girl is possessed by an evil spirit, her mother tries to find help, but everything goes wrong with horrible consequences.

Former sailor Fikret is having trouble settling into his new life in Istanbul and has begun to make use of the local church's facilities. When priest Artin goes on a trip to Vatican, Fikret starts selling off the church's cellar of expensive wines and stays in the priest's room at night. Fikret spends most of his remaining time gambling on horse races and lecturing Asim, a naïve young boy working at the car wash located next door to the church who perceives him as a surrogate as a father figure. Fikret and Asim learn of a rich widowed businesswoman, Deniz, who thinks that her sister, Selen, has had a spell put upon her and is prepared to pay anything to have it lifted. Fikret decides to go to Deniz's house disguised as a priest but gets more than he bargained for.

Cubelles, Tarragona, Spain, Christmas 1985. Five friends make an unexpected discovery in the forest: a woman disguised as Santa Claus trapped in a deep hole dug in the middle of nowhere.

A curse is placed on grinchy Chuy, who wakes up to find he's lived a full year, but is doomed to remember only Christmas Day. Every year. From now on.

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

After 20 years missing, João Grilo returns to Taperoá to join his old friend Chicó and, after his story of resurrection spreads, he is disputed as an electoral candidate by the two most powerful politicians in the city.

When an unattractive man gets engaged to a beautiful woman, their families oppose the union and the priest set to perform the ceremony is kidnapped.

Cesar is 'the boss', the one everyone hates, the one some flatter and the one nobody tells the truth; the great successful businessman is on the edge of the precipice. One night his actions crumble down, his partners betray him and his wife kicks him out of the house. Entrenched in his office, he tries relentlessly to recover his company and his life. But he will not do it alone, César will find a very special ally, Ariana, the cleaner of the night shift.

Gloria encounters Francisco, a man whose social veneer betrays a truer self burrowed underneath.

El Mariachi just wants to play his guitar and carry on the family tradition. Unfortunately, the town he tries to find work in has another visitor, a killer who carries his guns in a guitar case. The drug lord and his henchmen mistake el Mariachi for the killer, Azul, and chase him around town trying to kill him and get his guitar case.

The lively João Grilo and the sly Chicó are poor guys living in the hinterland who cheat a bunch of people in a small town in Northeastern Brazil. When they die, they have to be judged by Christ, the Devil and the Virgin Mary before they are admitted to paradise.

After participating in a séance, young Laura begins to behave strangely. Alarmed, her parents ask Father Olmedo, one of the few exorcists authorized by the Vatican to intervene in cases of demonic possession, for help.

Thomas is a meek man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Despite his situation he decides to fake a work trip to go to Vallarta to confront Jero, a taxi driver who is sleeping with his wife.

An auditor who completely despises Christmas is sent to a small town for work, where he meets a woman determined to change his view about the holiday.

A young priest coaches a team of uncoordinated monks in order to win a soccer tournament and save their monastery from being turned into a hotel.

Leandro, an unemployed mason and his friend, Tocho, attempt to rob a tobacconist in the Vallecas district of Madrid, but Mrs. Justa, the tobacconist, impedes it alerting the neighbors who notify police. Inside the shop, the confrontation between the two friends and their 'hostages', the tobacconist and her niece Angeles, is relaxing, and a budding sympathy arises between them.

Mario Moreno portrays a professor in this movie. A small town in the middle of no where requests the school Mario Moreno is working in for a teacher. He ends up going to give the town a hand. When he arrives he comes to know the corrupt leaders who through out the movie try to make him leave. Although he is being harassed you can see how much he cares for the kids and their circumstances. He deals with problems by using his hilarious comments.

Condorito must find a way to rescue his mother in law from an ancient race of aliens which wants to enslave the universe once again.

After a twist of fate brings their families together for Christmas, Charlotte sets out to prove her old friend Jackie's life is too good to be true.

Four children, all but one of whom go unnamed, build a snowman which comes to life and threatens their town.

It's about a country doctor that comes to the city while a clinic is built in his home town... he rubs off his care and compassion on others at the hospital with his humor and wit.

An American priest working in Mexico is considered a saint by many local parishioners. However, due to a botched exorcism, he carries a secret that’s eating him alive until he gets an opportunity to face his demon one final time.

Two families, Sebkovi and Krausovi, are celebrating Christmas, but not everyone is in a good mood. The teenage kids think that their fathers are totally stupid, and the fathers are sure that their children are nothing more than rebels, hating anything they say.

A pious 20-year-old juvenile delinquent is sent to work at a sawmill in a small town; on arrival, he dresses up as a priest and accidentally takes over the local parish. The arrival of this young, charismatic preacher is an opportunity for the local community to begin the healing process after a tragedy that happened a year prior.

After hiding a murderer, a Catholic priest is forced into self-exile and decides to embark on a pilgrimage through the Mexican countryside.

Large doses of humor, ingenious nods to Spain's most recent national cinema, an artistic cast highly linked to comedy and a high reserve of surprises constitute the ingredients of this crazy comedy: Spanish Movie.

Don Juan is sent from Hell to Earth with a mission: to seduce a virgin in order to spoil her pure wedding. The mission becomes frantic when Don Juan falls in love for the first time in centuries.

Four stories... one city. A dark comedy about crime in the big city: EL TORZON - two friends are smoking grass in their car, when they're caught by a corrupt Judicial Police Officer; VIDA EXPRESS - a wealthy businesswoman is kidnapped and her deadbeat husband has to come up with the money; BARBACOA DE CHIVO - an angry mob mistakes a college professor with a burglar and decide to lynch him in front of the church; COMIDA PARA PERROS - a bumbling thief tries to rob a restaurant

A neo-nazi sentenced to community service at a church clashes with the blindly devotional priest.

On Christmas Eve, Greg, a solitary and taciturn police officer, doesn't hesitate to leave his daughter behind to go on a mission. To teach him a lesson, Santa Claus decides to grant his daughter's wish: that her father looks like Richard Silestone, the good-natured and heavily indebted family man from the beloved Christmas movie she adores. While Greg is sent into this improbable world, Richard accidentally lands in the real world and both men realize they have no choice but to complete each other's missions to reclaim their respective lives.

Florencia and Vicente are getting divorced. When both are promoted at their jobs, they will do anything in order to do not keep custody of their children.

Sent to Mexico to help take care of aging Father Benito, young Father Amaro faces a moral challenge when he meets a 16-year-old girl who he starts an affair with. Likewise, the girl's mother had been having an affair with Father Benito. Father Amaro must choose between a holy or sinful life.

A street priest struggling to save his church learns his late uncle left him a small business that could turn his fortune around: he'll soon realize that said business is in fact... a brothel!

A former policeman enlists his nerdy friend to help bust drug traffickers moving heroin through a Chinese restaurant.

A poor man becomes a modern Robin Hood, robbing the rich to give to the poor.

Two priests, one in crisis with his faith and the other confronting a turbulent past, must overcome their differences to perform a risky exorcism.

A priest helps the small town he's stationed in to resolve conflicts by working together.

Sara invites her ex-husbands and their new families to celebrate Christmas with her and her husband Janne. Sara has always wanted to have a baby with Janne, and at the dinner table she reveals the news: she's pregnant. The only problem is that Janne had a vasectomy two years ago, without Sara knowing it. The secret starts to spread among the guests, and in no time everyone knows but Sara. The party heads for a complete disaster. Who's the real father?

One night, a burglar in a Santa Claus costume is surprised by Victor, a young boy who believes he is the real Santa Claus. Victor then follows him, and they embark on an unexpected adventure that will change their lives.

An actor in low hours and a young interpreter who threatens to displace the former thanks to the tricks of their agent; the owner of the high mountain hotel and her estranged sister, creator of a new and unique discipline that mixes yoga and fengshui; a group of children wanting to have fun, but also to discover hidden secrets; a taciturn bellboy who sees everything; and a tremendous storm that will leave everyone isolated just before Christmas. A weekend in which everything can happen, and in which everything will happen.

Bewildered, Don Camillo learns that Peppone intends to stand for parliament. Determined to thwart his ambitions, the good priest, ignoring the recommendations of the Lord, decides to campaign against him.

Two orderlies pretend to be surgeons to impress two young doctors and conquer, through several scenarios. Finally, they are discovered when they had to operate on a mafia boss to remove a bullet.

Two missionaries come into conflict with the authorities when they turn their missionary into a parrot farm. The Bishop of Maracaibo calls them his 'black sheep' and the Monsignore has been called to check on their behavior. Like usual, our heroes help the poor to defend themselves and provoke some funny fist fights in the process.

A popular and beautiful politician plans to expose the evil-doings of a multinational corporation. Hoping to silence her, the corporation's top executives decide to hire the most incompetent detective they can find to act as her bodyguard.

During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?

Two angels, one from the heaven and one from the hell, come to earth to save the soul of a boxer.

In a village of the Po valley where the earth is hard and life miserly, the priest and the communist mayor are always fighting to be the head of the community. If in secret, they admired and liked each other, politics still divided them as it is dividing the country. And when the mayor wants his "People's House"; the priest wants his "Garden City" for the poor. Division exist between the richest and the poorest, the pious and the atheists and even between lovers. But if the people are hard as the country, they are good in the bottom of there heart.

Two bumpkins in the big city fight over the same girl, until they realize that she's playing them against each other.

In the 1940s, a small Mexican town has seen its last three mayors assassinated in rapid succession. A naive janitor is recruited to become the new mayor, and he believes he will modernize the little town and usher in a reign of peace. But the system corrupts him very quickly, and he takes to abusing his power while associating with an unscrupulous assortment of opportunists, hypocrites and criminals.

Burdened by troubles and caught between cultures, Riza takes a job as a mall Santa and finds that real life may not be so different from make believe.

A corrupt CIA agent Sands hires hitman El Mariachi to assassinate a Mexican general hired by a drug kingpin attempting a coup d'état of the President of Mexico.

Rıfkı, who lives in Germany, returns to his village, which he left years ago, to sell the properties inherited from his late father. A few coincidences that occur upon his arrival in the village lead to his name being associated with the 'Saint' title.

In 19th century Mexico, legendary swordsman Zorro has passed on his weapon and his sense of duty to his noble son, Diego, a dashing swashbuckler like his father. But after an injury sidelines Diego, he is forced to hand the mask over to his twin, Ramon.

A thief and a priest end up magically transported in the year 0's Palestine, where they'll have to make sure that the Nativity will follow its course.

Keyla the police officer and the unprepared detective Claudio could not be more incompatible. However they are forced to form a duo to solve the series of mysterious murders that are happening in the quiet city of Joinlândia.

Santa Claus is actually a demon who lost a bet with an angel, so he became the giver of toys and happiness. But this year the bet is off, and Santa is about to return to his evil ways.

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, peace and goodwill. But for some folks in the small town of Bailey Downs, it turns into something much less festive.

Madea dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on rural town when she's coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas.

Jesús Quesada, an incompetent executive, is appointed as the new director of a company in decline whose survival will now depend on both the ingenuity and ambition of his former colleagues.

Maria Laura "Mala" is an actress with little luck, but she is successful working for other women, seducing their boyfriends to know if they are faithful or not. But everything changes when her dream to perform in her acting career depends on a job to be performed with Santiago who breaks the pattern and shakes her professional convictions.

When a psychotic Santa tries to destroy Chanukah by hypnotizing Jewish children with bootlegged copies of the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life," it's up to the Hebrew Hammer to save the day. Together with Mohammed, head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, the Hammer takes no prisoners in his quest to hunt down the renegade Santa and make the holiday season safe for all.

During the Spanish Civil War a platoon of mismatched Republican soldiers cross the front-line to steal the bull that the enemy is going to fight on the local holiday of the nearby village. In addition to ruining the Nationalist faction's celebration they want the animal in order to butcher it and feed their famished troops. They get caught in the process and have to go through a series of funny and pathetic incidents before they can get back to their side.

Christmas is on its way and with it disaster. The 92,000 responsible for manufacturing children's toys all become sick at the same time! It's a tough moment for Santa, better known as Father Christmas. He's left no choice: he must make an emergency trip to Earth with his reindeer to search for a remedy. When he arrives, he must find some allies to save the magic of Christmas.

Rosario, the niece of the rancher, returns to the ranch after ten years of absence. She takes in Margarito, a worker at the ranch, who is immediately smitten by her. Rosario is rescued from a runaway horse by the Seven Men, an outlaw a la Robin Hood that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. He also happens to be the twin brother of Margarito, unbeknownst to him. The confusion between Margarito and the Seven Men generates great comical situations in the film.

El Mariachi plunges headfirst into the dark border underworld when he follows a trail of blood to the last of the infamous Mexican drug lords, Bucho, for an action-packed, bullet-riddled showdown. With the help of his friend and a beautiful bookstore owner, El Mariachi tracks Bucho, takes on his army of desperados, and leaves his own trail of blood.


