Beyond the Collar
Most movies about faith fall into two camps: the overly sentimental 'faith-based' productions or the cynical 'religious-hypocrisy' exposés. Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało) manages to be neither. It is a secular film that takes faith more seriously than almost anything else in modern cinema.
Daniel, the protagonist, is a 20-year-old who has found God while in juvenile detention. He wants to go to the seminary, but his criminal record makes that impossible. When he is sent to a remote town to work at a sawmill, a white lie about being a priest spirals out of control. Suddenly, he is the acting vicar of a parish that is tearing itself apart over a tragic car accident from a year prior.
What makes the film work is that Daniel isn't a con artist looking for money. He actually wants to be a good priest. He uses his raw, unconventional experiences to reach people in a way the traditional, stuffy church hierarchy cannot. He screams, he gets angry, and he forces the townspeople to look at their own hatred.
Bartoś Bielenia, who plays Daniel, has a face that the camera can't look away from. His eyes are huge and piercing, making him look like a holy fool or a frantic animal depending on the scene. It is a physical, demanding performance that carries the movie's heavy runtime.
For parents, the 'Screenwise move' here is to treat this as a film for the adults or very mature older teens. It is a great entry point into foreign cinema because the stakes are so clear and the tension is so high. It’s currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy, making it easy to access if you have a library card or a cinephile's subscription. Don't go in expecting a sermon; go in expecting a punch to the gut.
