Bruegel capturing shards of their desperate stories on his canvas-in-the-making. Confronting the Spanish inquisition bloodily repressing the rise of Protestant reform in the Low Countries, the film offers a vibrant meditation on art and religion as ongoing, layered processes of collective storytelling and reinterpretation. THE MILL & THE CROSS is also a feast of stunning visual effects, a provocative allegory and a cinematic tour de force on religious freedom and human rights.