Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to the cinema with a group of new
friends. The movie with a rather misleading title ‘Corpus Christi’ is a Polish
candidate for an Oscar award and here I will relate some of my impressions
about it.
20-year-old Daniel is conditionally released from Juvenal Detention Center
and sent to work in a woodshed on the outskirts of Poland. Instead, he goes to
a nearby village, pretending to be a priest. When a local old priest gets sick
and has to leave the village to cure his alcoholism, Daniel agrees to replace
him. He puts on a stolen cassock and pretends to be ‘Father Tomasz’ (the name
was the one of the Juvie’s chaplain who had inspired Daniel). The boy is not
prepared for a new role, but he has an exceptional sensitivity to human
suffering. He finds out about a tragic event that took place in the village and
remains alive in the minds of residents. He is looking for a way of
reconciliation between the wife of the so-named killer and the families of
innocent victims. He asks local people about the tragedy and sees more pain and
weakness in people than premeditation and ill will. He exposes the hypocrisy of
the devout villagers still in mourning who do not agree to the funeral of the
driver who caused the accident (and died in it himself also). He acts
unconventionally and spontaneously in his religious practices, but thanks to
his authenticity and empathy he wins finally the hearts of parishioners. The
situation gets complicated when he is recognized by his colleague from Juvie
who is currently working in the nearby woodshed…
Although the plot could tempt to classify the movie as a Catholic or
religious one, I would be quite far from such a statement. First of all, the
reality of the Polish countryside and typical thinking of its inhabitants are
very accurately shown what is not always easy to do.
Then, each person who appears (even if they were on the screen only for a
moment) is involved in some internal weakness or experience of harm.
Consequently, man is shown in a very humanistic perspective and with realism.
Everyone struggles with their own barriers and sins. Anybody, would be an
individual, a group or an institution, is completely pure and innocent.
Finally, difficult and delicate issues such as hatred and hypocrisy have
primary importance here. The conclusion is that everyone can be justified (and
usually deserves more forgiveness than we are ready to give, insisting on our
own presumptions and not knowing the real circumstances of incidents). Anybody
is charged with a burden. A priest is no more holy than parishioners or
parishioners more holy than a priest. Believers are no better than atheists or
atheists than believers. People with a certain ‘stigma’ (the fact of being in a
Juvenile Detention Center or being called a killer) are the same as people who
seem morally right.
To summerise, the
movie is pretty difficult, as I have said already. In addition to the
complicated moral issues, there are scenes with alcohol, drugs, sex, fights,
blood, vulgarity. I think this is an ambitious kind of cinema that aptly and
directly presents individual dramas. And thanks to that, it becomes universal. Although
this movie will never be included to the category of my favorites, I have to
admit that it is somewhat thought-provoking and purifying. It affects the viewers’
emotionality and conscience.
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