“Ostensibly a faithful adaptation of Pierre Klossowski's autobiographical novel about the struggle between rival doctrinal factions within the Catholic Church, The Suspended Vocation illustrates Ruiz's belief that institutions, in order to survive, must treat all forms of dissidence as treason. In 1942, a film entitled The Suspended Vocation is begun by a group of monks; running out of money, they abandon the project. Twenty years later, a religious order hires a professional director to again take up this film project. The director, having examined the earlier footage, concludes that it is unusable. He decides to use professional actors, at which point the Church authorities, fearful of escalating costs, withdraw their support. Finally, in 1971, a third attempt is made to rework all the material into a coherent form. Alternately baffling and hilarious, The Suspended Vocation appears at times to be an invitation to young men to consider the priesthood; at other moments, a subplot implies that homosexual fascists may have infiltrated the monastery and taken control.” Richard Peña