Film review from Venice2019: 'Corpus Christi' ('Boze Cialo')
What is true faith and what's fakery is a question that runs through Polish director Jan Komasa's slow-burn drama, its dark intensity channeled in a dynamically physical, wild-eyed performance from talented young lead Bartosz Bielenia. Themes of salvation and sacrifice, damnation, retribution and redemption will make this too Catholic for some arthouse tastes, and the overlong film becomes draggy and lugubrious in patches.
Discussing his imminent release with the prison priest, Father Tomasz , Daniel suggests he has found a religious vocation. But the cleric tells him a criminal record rules out the priesthood, encouraging him to settle for the sawmill job he has secured for him in a remote spot on the other side of the country.
Nervous at first, Daniel starts by parroting prayers he learned from Father Tomasz, brushing up on Bible passages and looking up Holy Confession protocol on his smartphone. But soon he's improvising impassioned sermons, causing the number of churchgoers to swell. The community has been unable to move on from a tragedy in which seven youths were killed in a car accident, including Marta's brother. Bereaved family members hold a nightly vigil at a roadside shrine.
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