Pastor o impostor

"You know what we're good at? Giving up on people. Pointing the finger at them. 'Forgive' doesn't mean 'forget.' It doesn't mean 'pretend nothing happened.' 'Forgive' means 'love.' Love someone despite their guilt. No matter what the guilt is."

Engaging from beginning to end, with a deeply soulful performance from Bartosz Bielenia, the young man who stumbles into impersonating a priest after getting out of juvenile detention. His character brings pragmatic, meaningful spirituality to the town, and tries to help it heal from a tragedy that not only left seven dead, but a woman ostracized. I loved the theme of forgiveness and how hard it is to truly reach this state emotionally, and how it applied to both this poor woman and the imitation priest, who were both in desperate need of it.

The film toes the line between showing religion as a positive influence - making people better individuals and a source of great comfort - and getting a few criticisms in, such as mentioning that it was just a pope along the way who thought celibacy would be a good idea, and "now it's a problem." Mostly though, it shows the power of spirituality to lift people above their baser instincts, and the best moments are those when the young priest wields this power. The scene where he leads a funeral procession down the road and we see the rich mayor washing his car is one of many of this type, and it's stirring.

As much as I liked Eliza Rycembel's performance as a young woman searching for answers in the wake of her brother's death, I wish there hadn't been a growing love between her and the young priest. The film is not without flaws but none of them are too glaring, and director Jan Komasa tells the story well, keeping it engaging from beginning to end. It's solid and one that I'd recommend.

I finally got the chance to see Corpus Christi, the Oscar nominated movie from Poland for best international feature film, and it did come up to my expectations, so beautiful and very well made. First, the story (which is a true story) is so interesting and captivating, keeps you fully involved the whole time and tackles many values like spirituality and sins. It triggers your thinking on so many levels mainly about the good that could come from a bad person and vice versa. In addition to the story, the movie is so decently made. The cinematography is amazing with many stunning frames and so is the directing. The screenplay is brilliantly beautiful. And the main actor's performance is so solid and superb and so is everyone else. Also, the cast, the locations, the town all are great for the theme and mood of the movie. Corpus Christi is easily one of the best foreign language films and one of the best movies ever. I can't recommend it enough. Thanks to the Oscar nom that made me see this film and fall in love with it, much love to the European cinema in general from Lebanon- Middle East.

I saw this movie as part of the PSIFF. There were 2 movie houses packed for this performance. The story is detailed in the preview. I felt that the writing, and the performances made it one of the best films in the festival. At the end of the screening the audience were clearly awestruck. The message about the real reason for believe, not in a religion, but the power of people was uplifting. I know that some might find the story anti-Catholic, but if I met someone that was a committed to being a good person as Daniel I would be at his services.

... that's for sure, but some are more forgiven for their immoralities than others, regardless of their affect and intent. Many stones thrown in this intense and emotional story of deceit from Poland that will exercise your own moral compass on the actions of the unrighteous.

This is the kind of movie that captivated me from start to finish. The story itself unbelievable as it may seem is actually based on a real story of young man from the Masovian voivodeship. I will not spoil any of it and will just say that 'Corpus Christi' touches on important matters and values and it's main message translates to 'love thy neighbor'. Amazing performance by the main actor and I loved the camera work. Highly recommended by a non-practitioning catholic.