church versus state

His films like 'The Gospel According to St. Matthew' and 'Canterbury Tales' directly challenge religious dogma and institutional authority through provocative reinterpretations of sacred texts.

Throughout his career, particularly in 'Viridiana' and 'The Milky Way,' he used surrealism to savage religious hypocrisy and critique the complicity between church and state power.

His meditative political cinema, especially 'Landscape in the Mist' and 'Eternity and a Day,' explores how state and church institutions shape and constrain human freedom and memory.