Corpus Christi (2020)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Poland’s Oscar nominee for Best International Feature is a powerful drama about how much people are willing to accept and ignore when it comes to faith, belief, and religion.
Bartosz Bielenia gives a tremendous performance here as a convict falling into the most improbable of second chances.
As dramatic and intense as any domestic-made drama you are ever going to find - and one that will likely make you think about the reasons you may believe certain things without compromise.
NO
Say it with me: “I don’t read my movies, I watch them.” If this is you, 1) expand your viewing habits; and 2) move along.
Corpus Christi asks some really tough questions about not just what we believe but why we believe it. When tied to religion, this could make some viewers push back and take issue with the premise of having the reasons behind their faith questioned or challenged.
With a near unanimous approval on Rotten Tomatoes, you really don’t have a valid reason to avoid this. However, there are thousands of options now on streaming services since we are all largely quarantined.
OUR REVIEW
Poland’s Oscar-nominated Best International Feature Film from this year’s Academy Awards, Corpus Christi, moves from traditional theaters to the new Virtual Cinema initiative to save local, independent cinemas during the COVID-19 outbreak. Should you purchase an “at-home” ticket to view Corpus Christi, director Jan Komasa delivers a powerful character study about a convict who stows away in a small, grieving town and serves the community as a newly arrived priest.
Touching on some potentially divisive material, the film, named in part after the Catholic tradition of the Feast of Corpus Christi, focuses on what it means to have faith, how easily people can be led to believe, and a dissection of the priesthood as tradition. Loosely based on actual events, Komasa and screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz analyze what it means to bring solitude and a sense of acceptance to a community wrecked with the loss of seven young people from the hands of a drunk driver.
Around 20 years of age, Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia, in a remarkable performance) is incarcerated, but facing a work-release opportunity with a sawmill across the country. A hard partier, Daniel lives recklessly, but wrestles with his addictions as he shares his desire to follow a calling to serve in the priesthood. Prison pastor, Father Tomasz (Lukasz Simlat), shares with him that his criminal history is a disqualifier, leaving Daniel to take the job presented to him. However, he sneaks away and winds up in a small Polish community.
When the local vicar takes ill, Daniel slips into the skin of a newly anointed pastor and wins over the skepticism of the vicar’s caretaker, Lidia (Aleksandra Konieczna), and her daughter, Marta (Elisa Rycembel). Soon, his sermons become more and more meaningful and powerful to the congregants who continue to come back to hear Daniel’s messages, as this stranger in town begins to make a meaningful impact on a whole lot of people.
Corpus Christi asks many questions throughout its nearly two-hour running time. Among them: What defines a good deed? A benevolent act? How can we believe so blindly? Details are skirted over as to Daniel’s credentials – he is believable and begins effectuating positive change for the residents in the community. He identifies the widow of the drunk driver and begins to try and repair her connection to the community. While this eventually places him at odds with a tempestuous mayor, the caretaker, and families of the children who died, others see Daniel’s efforts as good.
We all understand that at some point the ruse of Daniel’s impersonation will come to light, and Komasa and Pacewicz rely on melodrama to get us to those moments of inevitability. Bielenia’s performance is fantastic throughout, anchoring so much hidden shame and emotion with a genuine sense of trying to find the good within himself to perpetuate a well-intentioned, if not doomed-to-fail experiment for as long as he can.
He knows he is racing against time; he just never quite knows how much time he has left to find a way to survive the fantasy he has created for himself.
While Komasa does not ask if faith is built around lies, questions like it are never far from the surface. Desperate to have someone guide through pain, anguish, and a virtual darkness, Daniel is accepted almost without question. His youthful appearance is never challenged. When a fire breaks out late in the film, only then do questions begin to swirl about his legitimacy.
Essentially, Corpus Christi reminds us that we can collectively believe in anything if we will it to be true. Beyond an imposter priest, Komasa explores the vulnerability that comes with faith, as well as an almost ego and hubris about what we choose to have faith in. Even if the film reminds us how “flawed” Daniel can be, adding in an unnecessary love story and his ability to indulge his demons a bit too often, Komasa asks his audience how much people are willing to ignore in the face of their own piety.
He makes a compelling case that if people feel heard, trust and compassion can easily follow. Careful not to judge Daniel, or those he serves, Corpus Christi raises some thoughtful questions that go well beyond one’s own faith or religion. As Daniel acquires believers and followers and gains a heartbroken community’s trust, is he damaging people by giving them hope? Something to believe in?
Corpus Christi is a movie worth discovering, if not only to answer those questions, but for the many more it may raise, as you ponder one young man’s attempts at rehabilitating a community and himself at the same time.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel, Tomasz Zietek, Leszek Lichota, Lukasz Simlat, Zdzislaw Wardejn, Tomasz Wlosok.
Director: Jan Komasa
Written by: Mateusz Pacewicz
Release Date: February 28, 2020
Film Movement