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Review: Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało) (2019)
I’d heard about this movie years ago and I also appreciate movies with religious themes so I was excited to check it out. I’m still processing what happened, but I do think the movie was interesting.
Spoilers.
Story
Daniel was an inmate at a juvenile detention center. By all means he was a normal inmate, participating in bullying. But he also helped with the masses. Daniel left the detention center on parole. Before leaving, he asked the priest, Father Tomasz, if there was no way he could attend a seminary as he was a devout Christian, but Tomasz told him that there’d be no way he’d be accepted because he was a convict.
Daniel was sent to a town to work at a sawmill (the inmates would normally do woodwork so he had the skillset). He visited the church and pretended to be a priest. However, the ruse went to far and he was stuck in position, especially after the local vicar fell ill and he had to fill the position, leading masses and such.
Daniel was kind of the cool priest since he was young. He led masses with a mix of what he’d learned from Father Tomasz’s masses, but presumably along the way he would have developed his own sermons. But he also hung out with local folks, including Marta, a young woman, and her friends.
It was revealed that there had been a major car accident in recent times, killing an adult male driver and six young people. The older man was assumed to have been drunk and was thus excluded from the vigils and such honouring the victims. On a whim, Daniel (who at this time was going by the name Father Tomasz) and Marta visited the widow of the man and she was very angry, obviously having undergone lots of persecution over the years. Marta’s brother had been one of the people who had died, and she hadn’t gone to his funeral. She revealed to Daniel that before their deaths, she’d received a video of the young people drinking and consuming drugs, but she hadn’t shared it. On the other hand, the widow had maintained that her husband had been sober for four years prior to the accident.
Daniel wanted to help the folks overcome their grief. He held sessions with the family of the young victims to rid them of their anger and negative feelings. Daniel and Marta also wanted to bury the remains of the driver. This was met with backlash. Marta passed out letters that had been written to the widow, heinous things. Marta’s mother Lidia was upset with Marta and they had a falling out.
Marta went to Daniel’s house to stay and they kissed and had sex. However, afterwards Daniel’s shed was set on fire, presumably due to people who were unhappy with his actions. Of the police who arrived, one of them was an officer whom he’d met on the bus ride to the town, so he knew that he probably wasn’t a priest.
At one point, one of the sawmill workers came to confession. It was Pinscher, one of Daniel’s fellow inmates who knew his lie. He revealed some of Daniel’s backstory, that he had killed a person and had asked for parole when the victim’s brother arrived at the detention center (the brother being Bonus). They also said that Daniel had done sexual favours for Father Tomasz to have a better time at the detention center, though now that I think about it, I’m not sure how much of that is true. More on that later. He tried to extort Daniel for money. Later he revealed that he needed money because he had a child with a woman.
Daniel held the funeral service for the driver anyway. Marta was there, as were some other people in the village. While leading the service, Daniel saw Father Tomasz, but he continued the service anyway. After the service, before mass, Tomasz confronted Daniel, trying to get him to leave. Tomasz also saw that Daniel had become beloved in the village, and had received letters of appreciation. Daniel snuck out to get to the mass and Tomasz still tried to stop him. At the beginning of the mass, Daniel revealed his tattoos, showing the world who he was, and left.
Daniel returned to the detention center. Pinscher sneered at Daniel, saying that they weren’t friends, and Daniel accused Pinscher of snitching him out, which had Pinscher hesitating. Daniel and Bonus engaged in a fight and Daniel won. Afterwards, he was pushed out of the building and the fire alarm was pulled to distract from the fight.
At the end, we were shown that perhaps the village was healing as well. The widow had gone to church, and Lidia, her strongest opponent, had nodded at her.
What did this mean? I think the overarching story is about healing. Daniel was an outsider who came to the village. Though he was a fake, he forced the people to confront their ills, their grief, their anger. Maybe it was because he was a convict that only someone like him could be brave enough to sympathize with a persecuted person. He revealed his imperfections to the world, admitting that he was a murderer, though I don’t know how literally the parishioners took his confession. Despite his imperfections, he brought the community together, participating in the local activities and such.
Meanwhile, back at the detention center, he was back where he started. While the inmates had their fights, they never revealed them to the world. So all bad blood stayed bad. We saw it at the beginning, we saw it at the end. The inmates always keep everything under wraps, protecting even their targets. But because they won’t let anyone in, they’ll never heal.
Production
I think the movie looked good, no complaints. I think a lot of this movie hinged on the direction too. It was a bit slow in order to really immerse us into the conversations. The acting was good too.
Characters
Daniel
Daniel was our main character. At the beginning, I think he was still pretty immature and short-sighted. He played along with the reindeer games at the detention center, participating in the bullying of the inmate (as the lookout). However, he was a bit different in that he was a devout Christian. When Pinscher accused him of hooking up with Father Tomasz, I don’t know if he meant that literally as in Father Tomasz was abusing him, or if he was just calling Daniel a suck up good boy. A bit muddy on that.
Daniel was afraid of Bonus, the brother of the person he killed and that was why he begged for parole. Perhaps Pinscher meant that he had done a favour for Tomasz in order to be approved for parole. He got out but he would always be drawn to the church. Who knows why he posed as a priest. Maybe he thought it’d be fun. He had realized he’d taken it too far when he went to the vicar’s house and tried to escape through the window, but when he couldn’t, he just settled into his job. Things didn’t get real until the vicar got sick and he had to fill in for him in the sermons though.
At first, Daniel was a hack. He just reused Father Tomasz’s sermons, and he was literally googling what to do in confession. That being said, he was able to use his own experience to help the parishioners, like when the woman wasn’t sure what to do about her young son smoking.
Daniel brought a form of sympathy that is rare, having been a murderer himself. With religion, sometimes people carry themselves with an air of superiority, and would maybe scoff at those who’ve erred. But Daniel knows he’s no better. He’s just trying to give advice from the point of view of someone who’s experienced it.
Daniel stepped on toes with regards to the car accident. I think he just felt sympathy for the widow who was ostracized from society. That was also influenced by his relationship with Marta, who felt some guilt over it. And it was revealed that she had known that her brother and their friends had been abusing alcohol and drugs so the accident was likely their fault. Daniel felt sympathy for the driver even before he knew this. After all, he’d killed before. He’d hoped that he was worthy of some salvation, so why can’t this man even be laid to rest? Though he did encounter backlash, Daniel was resolute, and I think it kind of paid off. It gave some sense of peace and bonding. Some people did show up to the burial ceremony, even if the group was small.
But that coincided with Father Tomasz coming and retrieving him. With regards to Father Tomasz, his appearance was a contrast. Here was Daniel, yes, a fake priest, but he was beloved by the people, and he was helping them heal. Was Tomasz beloved by his parishioners, the inmates? He felt that they were there on obligation. Arguably, Daniel had done more as a false priest as Tomasz had.
But Daniel had violated parole and he was sent back to juvie. Back in the rat race, fighting Bonus, but coming out on top.
What did it mean for Daniel to run out at the end? Again I think it was a bit of desolation and hopelessness, that as long as he was in the detention center, no one could heal. Look at Pinscher, who showed his true feelings when he was on the outside world, how he did love the mother of his child. Back in juvie, he was just a boy. He didn’t realize this, but I think Daniel did. He’d gained something from his time as the priest. But he won’t be able to grow until he leaves.
Lidia
Lidia worked for the vicar. She was also Marta’s mother. Lidia was very strict and she generally represented the values of the village. I felt like she was constantly judging Daniel’s unorthodox ways, but she couldn’t really say anything because he was engaging the people more than ever.
Lidia and Marta butted heads with regards to the car crash. Lidia felt that the young people were innocent and that the driver was evil and should be ostracized. She butted heads with Marta when Marta wanted to show the cruel words that were directed at the widow. She also opposed the widow when she wanted to bury her husband.
But towards the end of the movie, she did start to change her ways. She was at the farewell mass, and seemed moved with the way that Daniel had left. And at the end, she had nodded at the widow when she came to attend mass.
Marta
Marta was a young woman that Daniel had befriended. She was the first person he presented himself as a priest too and that was how the ball got rolling. She was always in his periphery because her mom worked for the church. She also invited Daniel to join her friends. They did have a good time, but we saw that the car crash was a point of contention for the group. It was revealed that Marta hadn’t gone to her own brother’s funeral, which of course was odd.
Marta later showed Daniel the video of her brother and their friends abusing drugs, which explained why she seemed to have hard feelings towards her brother. She probably felt negatively that her brother had been in the wrong and yet was painted as some perfect angel while the other driver was demonized. So that was why she and Daniel championed the move to have the driver laid to rest in peace. Marta was moved by the cruel letters written to the widow. She and her mom got into a fight over it and she went to stay with Daniel.
She and Daniel slept together. I feel that they probably felt like the only two people who understood each other. For Marta it was the burden of the truth, that her brother was in the wrong. For Daniel, it was the feeling that even the worst criminals are worthy of certain human or moral rights, such as being laid to rest.
Marta did join the funeral service at the side of the widow. And at the end of the movie, she left town, probably needing to find her own path.
Widow
The first time we met the widow of the driver, she was very angry. It was a bit shocking, but it must have left and impression on Daniel and Marta. The next time they visited was when Daniel was gathering items from the victims to help them overcome their grief. They’d gone to the widow to ask her for things too. She had given them the letters.
There was a discussion among the mayor, Lidia, the widow, and Daniel about the burial of the driver. The mayor agreed to add the driver to the vigil board to kind of tick a box I guess. He didn’t seem as invested in the actual issue of the burial, I think he just wanted to get this over with. Lidia was against the burial, and Daniel and the widow wanted to bury him. At this conversation, the widow told Daniel that she had gotten into a fight with her husband before he went out, and he had threatened suicide, and that probably weighed heavily on her, and that was probably what convinced him that this needed to be done.
I do think the service was a good opportunity for peace for the widow, with the support of Daniel and Marta. I feel that her being able to bury her husband was at least an apology for that last fight. And seeing the others join the funeral service probably gave her a bit of strength too, that there are people who sympathize with her.
At the end of the movie, she went to church, and we’re given hope that maybe she will become part of the community again.
Pinscher
Pinscher was a fellow inmate of Daniel’s who ended up working at the sawmill. We saw him when he came for confession, and he essentially told Daniel that he knew his story, and that he was a fake. He asked Daniel for money. It was afterwards that Daniel admitted to being a murderer in church, and I think his sermon moved Pinscher a bit, made him feel seen.
Daniel did collect money, but he couldn’t give it to Pinscher because it was for the funeral. Pinscher was being a fool and basically going all starry eyed at the luxuries in Daniel’s house. But when he settled down and had a drink with Daniel, he revealed that he needed money because he had a child. When Daniel asked him if he loved the woman, he said that he did.
Back at the detention center, Pinscher said that they weren’t friends, just because they talked outside. Daniel pointed out that Pinscher had sold him, and that gave Pinscher pause. I think it made him realize that he was not acting with principle. Perhaps this wouldn’t have bothered him in the past. But maybe time on the outside reminded him that he did have a moral duty to be a good person, especially since he has a girlfriend/wife and a child on the way.
Father Tomasz
Tomasz was the priest at the detention center. When Daniel left, Tomasz gave him his phone number but told him only to call him if absolutely necessary, which seemed a bit cold to me. Again, I have no idea whether Tomasz was actually sexually abusing Daniel. But nonetheless, the departure was a bit cold. Daniel had asked again if there was no way he could attend a seminary and Tomasz told him that him being a convict basically condemned him forever. Which is cruel for Daniel. Because as a former criminal, it is redemption that Daniel needed the most. He found it on his own through his own way. In his sermon when he revealed he was a murderer, Daniel said that forgive does not mean to forget. He knows that he can’t change what he did. But he can be a better person starting now. And that was what he did. Weirdly enough, Tomasz doesn’t have that sympathy.
Tomasz showed up at the end to take Daniel back. He’d found out about Daniel’s deception, either from Pinscher or from the police officer. Daniel had basically taken his identity as everyone in town called him Father Tomasz. Tomasz was just as short-sighted as Daniel was in the beginning. He just wanted to get Daniel to stop. When Daniel wouldn’t, Tomasz decided that he’d lead the mass with Daniel helping. But Daniel just left.
Tomasz is a priest but not really the priest that people needed. Just like Father Wojciech. Neither gave people the healing that they needed to move on. Tomasz might have had some good sermons that would have moved Daniel, but we saw that he didn’t really believe in redemption. Father Wojciech admitted that he had sinned and that he felt confession didn’t give himself salvation. Perhaps he just believed that we have to live with our wrongs forever. Maybe it’s what made him ill. He was the one who decided that the driver’s picture had to be excluded from the memorial. Because he does not believe in forgiveness.
Walkiewicz
Walkiewicz was the mayor in town. He also owned the sawmill. I didn’t pay as much attention to him in this movie, but he was similar to Lidia in that he also represented the views of the village, but held some authority. He tried to get Daniel to stop probing into the car accident, which Daniel ignored.
When he opened a new wing of the sawmill, Daniel held a sermon. He basically chastised Walkiewicz for greed, and also had everyone kneel on the muddy ground which probably humbled Walkiewicz a bit.
Walkiewicz is a man who probably doesn’t think about morality at all. He just thinks about accumulating wealth. In the conversations about whether or not to bury the driver in town, he legitimately did not care. He just wanted the matter to be handled.
Themes
Religion, Christianity, and Morality
Of course, this theme is up front and center. But I think the movie was more about morality, about finding your path in life rather than strictly Christianity. I always feel that religion is not necessarily about the teachings of a certain spiritual figure, but rather, about using narratives to find peace and comfort in your own life. That is why some people find Christianity after trauma, because it’s the religion that helps them find comfort. It’s the same for Daniel, it’s the same for the people in the church. They use religion to help them understand and be okay with the life that has been handed to them.
It was interesting how religion and morality could also be used as a weapon at times. Walkiewicz was the most powerful man in town. And yet, Daniel, a young person who was nothing but a priest (albeit a false one), could get him to kneel, all on the pretense that they had to do so to pay proper respects.
And what is a real priest and what is a false priest? Does someone just need to be ordained to be a priest? I know this is just semantics though. Daniel was a leader in the community far more than Tomasz was.
I thought it was interesting that carpentry was a theme throughout the movie, since Jesus himself was the son of a carpenter. And the angle of saws cutting into planks kind of forms the shape of a cross. I thought that perhaps Daniel would be a sort of martyr, but I don’t think it exactly fits.
Healing
The town was going through a lot of grief at the beginning of the movie. It took Daniel, an outsider and a criminal, to pick at the tough questions, to face pushback, and to make room in the community for forgiveness and healing.
But that healing is not afforded at the detention center. Despite their fighting, the inmates do not let anybody in. At the beginning, the inmates were bullying that one guy in the workshop, but when the supervisor was coming back, they all resumed their places, even the person who was bullied. At the end of the movie, though Daniel had beaten up Bonus, they let him escape and pulled the fire alarm to obscure what had actually happened. They will never let anybody in to poke at their weaknesses.
And it only takes going outside of the barrier for people to understand that they need to heal. Daniel didn’t realize there was capacity in himself to do good until he was outside of the inmate to carpenter pipeline. If he worked at Walkiewicz’s sawmill, he would have been around other inmates as well. He might not have found any room for growth. But even with Pinscher, who did work at the sawmill, he grew a bit himself, learning the meaning of human relationships, realizing what was important to him. He forgot it when he was back in, but Daniel reminded him of it.
Hypocrisy
Unfortunately the world of religion is rife with hypocrisy. Despite being devout, Daniel did not always show kindness, and engaged in the bullying at the detention center. We saw hypocrisy with Father Tomasz, who was an authority figure and a person who Daniel looked up to, but distanced himself from Daniel on the outside world. We saw it in the town too, where you had devout parishioners but they could not find it in themselves to forgive. And then there were the driver and the young people who died in the accident; the driver was demonized when in fact it was likely the young folks who were under the influence.
For many, religion is just going through the motions. That is what Tomasz warned the inmates against at the beginning of the movie. He wanted them to really internalize his teachings. And yet it’s hard to say he fully follows them. But the same goes in the town. It felt like Father Wojciech doubted some of his own teachings as well, like how he didn’t really fully believe in forgiveness, nor did Lidia who was so extremely devout.
Christianity is supposed to give us room to forgive sins. Jesus Christ died for our sins, implying that humans have a natural capacity for sin. And yet so many are against forgiveness. Tomasz right off the bat said that Daniel could not become a priest because of his past, even if he had proven himself devout. And I’d already outlined the different ways that folks could not forgive in this movie.
I’d say it’s more irony than hypocrisy that it took Daniel, a criminal, to get the village to heal. But it had to be him because maybe only a criminal could so strongly sympathize with a criminal.
Overall
I’ll probably have more thoughts on this movie later on. But anyway I enjoyed it!
Spoilers.
Story
Daniel was an inmate at a juvenile detention center. By all means he was a normal inmate, participating in bullying. But he also helped with the masses. Daniel left the detention center on parole. Before leaving, he asked the priest, Father Tomasz, if there was no way he could attend a seminary as he was a devout Christian, but Tomasz told him that there’d be no way he’d be accepted because he was a convict.
Daniel was sent to a town to work at a sawmill (the inmates would normally do woodwork so he had the skillset). He visited the church and pretended to be a priest. However, the ruse went to far and he was stuck in position, especially after the local vicar fell ill and he had to fill the position, leading masses and such.
Daniel was kind of the cool priest since he was young. He led masses with a mix of what he’d learned from Father Tomasz’s masses, but presumably along the way he would have developed his own sermons. But he also hung out with local folks, including Marta, a young woman, and her friends.
It was revealed that there had been a major car accident in recent times, killing an adult male driver and six young people. The older man was assumed to have been drunk and was thus excluded from the vigils and such honouring the victims. On a whim, Daniel (who at this time was going by the name Father Tomasz) and Marta visited the widow of the man and she was very angry, obviously having undergone lots of persecution over the years. Marta’s brother had been one of the people who had died, and she hadn’t gone to his funeral. She revealed to Daniel that before their deaths, she’d received a video of the young people drinking and consuming drugs, but she hadn’t shared it. On the other hand, the widow had maintained that her husband had been sober for four years prior to the accident.
Daniel wanted to help the folks overcome their grief. He held sessions with the family of the young victims to rid them of their anger and negative feelings. Daniel and Marta also wanted to bury the remains of the driver. This was met with backlash. Marta passed out letters that had been written to the widow, heinous things. Marta’s mother Lidia was upset with Marta and they had a falling out.
Marta went to Daniel’s house to stay and they kissed and had sex. However, afterwards Daniel’s shed was set on fire, presumably due to people who were unhappy with his actions. Of the police who arrived, one of them was an officer whom he’d met on the bus ride to the town, so he knew that he probably wasn’t a priest.
At one point, one of the sawmill workers came to confession. It was Pinscher, one of Daniel’s fellow inmates who knew his lie. He revealed some of Daniel’s backstory, that he had killed a person and had asked for parole when the victim’s brother arrived at the detention center (the brother being Bonus). They also said that Daniel had done sexual favours for Father Tomasz to have a better time at the detention center, though now that I think about it, I’m not sure how much of that is true. More on that later. He tried to extort Daniel for money. Later he revealed that he needed money because he had a child with a woman.
Daniel held the funeral service for the driver anyway. Marta was there, as were some other people in the village. While leading the service, Daniel saw Father Tomasz, but he continued the service anyway. After the service, before mass, Tomasz confronted Daniel, trying to get him to leave. Tomasz also saw that Daniel had become beloved in the village, and had received letters of appreciation. Daniel snuck out to get to the mass and Tomasz still tried to stop him. At the beginning of the mass, Daniel revealed his tattoos, showing the world who he was, and left.
Daniel returned to the detention center. Pinscher sneered at Daniel, saying that they weren’t friends, and Daniel accused Pinscher of snitching him out, which had Pinscher hesitating. Daniel and Bonus engaged in a fight and Daniel won. Afterwards, he was pushed out of the building and the fire alarm was pulled to distract from the fight.
At the end, we were shown that perhaps the village was healing as well. The widow had gone to church, and Lidia, her strongest opponent, had nodded at her.
What did this mean? I think the overarching story is about healing. Daniel was an outsider who came to the village. Though he was a fake, he forced the people to confront their ills, their grief, their anger. Maybe it was because he was a convict that only someone like him could be brave enough to sympathize with a persecuted person. He revealed his imperfections to the world, admitting that he was a murderer, though I don’t know how literally the parishioners took his confession. Despite his imperfections, he brought the community together, participating in the local activities and such.
Meanwhile, back at the detention center, he was back where he started. While the inmates had their fights, they never revealed them to the world. So all bad blood stayed bad. We saw it at the beginning, we saw it at the end. The inmates always keep everything under wraps, protecting even their targets. But because they won’t let anyone in, they’ll never heal.
Production
I think the movie looked good, no complaints. I think a lot of this movie hinged on the direction too. It was a bit slow in order to really immerse us into the conversations. The acting was good too.
Characters
Daniel
Daniel was our main character. At the beginning, I think he was still pretty immature and short-sighted. He played along with the reindeer games at the detention center, participating in the bullying of the inmate (as the lookout). However, he was a bit different in that he was a devout Christian. When Pinscher accused him of hooking up with Father Tomasz, I don’t know if he meant that literally as in Father Tomasz was abusing him, or if he was just calling Daniel a suck up good boy. A bit muddy on that.
Daniel was afraid of Bonus, the brother of the person he killed and that was why he begged for parole. Perhaps Pinscher meant that he had done a favour for Tomasz in order to be approved for parole. He got out but he would always be drawn to the church. Who knows why he posed as a priest. Maybe he thought it’d be fun. He had realized he’d taken it too far when he went to the vicar’s house and tried to escape through the window, but when he couldn’t, he just settled into his job. Things didn’t get real until the vicar got sick and he had to fill in for him in the sermons though.
At first, Daniel was a hack. He just reused Father Tomasz’s sermons, and he was literally googling what to do in confession. That being said, he was able to use his own experience to help the parishioners, like when the woman wasn’t sure what to do about her young son smoking.
Daniel brought a form of sympathy that is rare, having been a murderer himself. With religion, sometimes people carry themselves with an air of superiority, and would maybe scoff at those who’ve erred. But Daniel knows he’s no better. He’s just trying to give advice from the point of view of someone who’s experienced it.
Daniel stepped on toes with regards to the car accident. I think he just felt sympathy for the widow who was ostracized from society. That was also influenced by his relationship with Marta, who felt some guilt over it. And it was revealed that she had known that her brother and their friends had been abusing alcohol and drugs so the accident was likely their fault. Daniel felt sympathy for the driver even before he knew this. After all, he’d killed before. He’d hoped that he was worthy of some salvation, so why can’t this man even be laid to rest? Though he did encounter backlash, Daniel was resolute, and I think it kind of paid off. It gave some sense of peace and bonding. Some people did show up to the burial ceremony, even if the group was small.
But that coincided with Father Tomasz coming and retrieving him. With regards to Father Tomasz, his appearance was a contrast. Here was Daniel, yes, a fake priest, but he was beloved by the people, and he was helping them heal. Was Tomasz beloved by his parishioners, the inmates? He felt that they were there on obligation. Arguably, Daniel had done more as a false priest as Tomasz had.
But Daniel had violated parole and he was sent back to juvie. Back in the rat race, fighting Bonus, but coming out on top.
What did it mean for Daniel to run out at the end? Again I think it was a bit of desolation and hopelessness, that as long as he was in the detention center, no one could heal. Look at Pinscher, who showed his true feelings when he was on the outside world, how he did love the mother of his child. Back in juvie, he was just a boy. He didn’t realize this, but I think Daniel did. He’d gained something from his time as the priest. But he won’t be able to grow until he leaves.
Lidia
Lidia worked for the vicar. She was also Marta’s mother. Lidia was very strict and she generally represented the values of the village. I felt like she was constantly judging Daniel’s unorthodox ways, but she couldn’t really say anything because he was engaging the people more than ever.
Lidia and Marta butted heads with regards to the car crash. Lidia felt that the young people were innocent and that the driver was evil and should be ostracized. She butted heads with Marta when Marta wanted to show the cruel words that were directed at the widow. She also opposed the widow when she wanted to bury her husband.
But towards the end of the movie, she did start to change her ways. She was at the farewell mass, and seemed moved with the way that Daniel had left. And at the end, she had nodded at the widow when she came to attend mass.
Marta
Marta was a young woman that Daniel had befriended. She was the first person he presented himself as a priest too and that was how the ball got rolling. She was always in his periphery because her mom worked for the church. She also invited Daniel to join her friends. They did have a good time, but we saw that the car crash was a point of contention for the group. It was revealed that Marta hadn’t gone to her own brother’s funeral, which of course was odd.
Marta later showed Daniel the video of her brother and their friends abusing drugs, which explained why she seemed to have hard feelings towards her brother. She probably felt negatively that her brother had been in the wrong and yet was painted as some perfect angel while the other driver was demonized. So that was why she and Daniel championed the move to have the driver laid to rest in peace. Marta was moved by the cruel letters written to the widow. She and her mom got into a fight over it and she went to stay with Daniel.
She and Daniel slept together. I feel that they probably felt like the only two people who understood each other. For Marta it was the burden of the truth, that her brother was in the wrong. For Daniel, it was the feeling that even the worst criminals are worthy of certain human or moral rights, such as being laid to rest.
Marta did join the funeral service at the side of the widow. And at the end of the movie, she left town, probably needing to find her own path.
Widow
The first time we met the widow of the driver, she was very angry. It was a bit shocking, but it must have left and impression on Daniel and Marta. The next time they visited was when Daniel was gathering items from the victims to help them overcome their grief. They’d gone to the widow to ask her for things too. She had given them the letters.
There was a discussion among the mayor, Lidia, the widow, and Daniel about the burial of the driver. The mayor agreed to add the driver to the vigil board to kind of tick a box I guess. He didn’t seem as invested in the actual issue of the burial, I think he just wanted to get this over with. Lidia was against the burial, and Daniel and the widow wanted to bury him. At this conversation, the widow told Daniel that she had gotten into a fight with her husband before he went out, and he had threatened suicide, and that probably weighed heavily on her, and that was probably what convinced him that this needed to be done.
I do think the service was a good opportunity for peace for the widow, with the support of Daniel and Marta. I feel that her being able to bury her husband was at least an apology for that last fight. And seeing the others join the funeral service probably gave her a bit of strength too, that there are people who sympathize with her.
At the end of the movie, she went to church, and we’re given hope that maybe she will become part of the community again.
Pinscher
Pinscher was a fellow inmate of Daniel’s who ended up working at the sawmill. We saw him when he came for confession, and he essentially told Daniel that he knew his story, and that he was a fake. He asked Daniel for money. It was afterwards that Daniel admitted to being a murderer in church, and I think his sermon moved Pinscher a bit, made him feel seen.
Daniel did collect money, but he couldn’t give it to Pinscher because it was for the funeral. Pinscher was being a fool and basically going all starry eyed at the luxuries in Daniel’s house. But when he settled down and had a drink with Daniel, he revealed that he needed money because he had a child. When Daniel asked him if he loved the woman, he said that he did.
Back at the detention center, Pinscher said that they weren’t friends, just because they talked outside. Daniel pointed out that Pinscher had sold him, and that gave Pinscher pause. I think it made him realize that he was not acting with principle. Perhaps this wouldn’t have bothered him in the past. But maybe time on the outside reminded him that he did have a moral duty to be a good person, especially since he has a girlfriend/wife and a child on the way.
Father Tomasz
Tomasz was the priest at the detention center. When Daniel left, Tomasz gave him his phone number but told him only to call him if absolutely necessary, which seemed a bit cold to me. Again, I have no idea whether Tomasz was actually sexually abusing Daniel. But nonetheless, the departure was a bit cold. Daniel had asked again if there was no way he could attend a seminary and Tomasz told him that him being a convict basically condemned him forever. Which is cruel for Daniel. Because as a former criminal, it is redemption that Daniel needed the most. He found it on his own through his own way. In his sermon when he revealed he was a murderer, Daniel said that forgive does not mean to forget. He knows that he can’t change what he did. But he can be a better person starting now. And that was what he did. Weirdly enough, Tomasz doesn’t have that sympathy.
Tomasz showed up at the end to take Daniel back. He’d found out about Daniel’s deception, either from Pinscher or from the police officer. Daniel had basically taken his identity as everyone in town called him Father Tomasz. Tomasz was just as short-sighted as Daniel was in the beginning. He just wanted to get Daniel to stop. When Daniel wouldn’t, Tomasz decided that he’d lead the mass with Daniel helping. But Daniel just left.
Tomasz is a priest but not really the priest that people needed. Just like Father Wojciech. Neither gave people the healing that they needed to move on. Tomasz might have had some good sermons that would have moved Daniel, but we saw that he didn’t really believe in redemption. Father Wojciech admitted that he had sinned and that he felt confession didn’t give himself salvation. Perhaps he just believed that we have to live with our wrongs forever. Maybe it’s what made him ill. He was the one who decided that the driver’s picture had to be excluded from the memorial. Because he does not believe in forgiveness.
Walkiewicz
Walkiewicz was the mayor in town. He also owned the sawmill. I didn’t pay as much attention to him in this movie, but he was similar to Lidia in that he also represented the views of the village, but held some authority. He tried to get Daniel to stop probing into the car accident, which Daniel ignored.
When he opened a new wing of the sawmill, Daniel held a sermon. He basically chastised Walkiewicz for greed, and also had everyone kneel on the muddy ground which probably humbled Walkiewicz a bit.
Walkiewicz is a man who probably doesn’t think about morality at all. He just thinks about accumulating wealth. In the conversations about whether or not to bury the driver in town, he legitimately did not care. He just wanted the matter to be handled.
Themes
Religion, Christianity, and Morality
Of course, this theme is up front and center. But I think the movie was more about morality, about finding your path in life rather than strictly Christianity. I always feel that religion is not necessarily about the teachings of a certain spiritual figure, but rather, about using narratives to find peace and comfort in your own life. That is why some people find Christianity after trauma, because it’s the religion that helps them find comfort. It’s the same for Daniel, it’s the same for the people in the church. They use religion to help them understand and be okay with the life that has been handed to them.
It was interesting how religion and morality could also be used as a weapon at times. Walkiewicz was the most powerful man in town. And yet, Daniel, a young person who was nothing but a priest (albeit a false one), could get him to kneel, all on the pretense that they had to do so to pay proper respects.
And what is a real priest and what is a false priest? Does someone just need to be ordained to be a priest? I know this is just semantics though. Daniel was a leader in the community far more than Tomasz was.
I thought it was interesting that carpentry was a theme throughout the movie, since Jesus himself was the son of a carpenter. And the angle of saws cutting into planks kind of forms the shape of a cross. I thought that perhaps Daniel would be a sort of martyr, but I don’t think it exactly fits.
Healing
The town was going through a lot of grief at the beginning of the movie. It took Daniel, an outsider and a criminal, to pick at the tough questions, to face pushback, and to make room in the community for forgiveness and healing.
But that healing is not afforded at the detention center. Despite their fighting, the inmates do not let anybody in. At the beginning, the inmates were bullying that one guy in the workshop, but when the supervisor was coming back, they all resumed their places, even the person who was bullied. At the end of the movie, though Daniel had beaten up Bonus, they let him escape and pulled the fire alarm to obscure what had actually happened. They will never let anybody in to poke at their weaknesses.
And it only takes going outside of the barrier for people to understand that they need to heal. Daniel didn’t realize there was capacity in himself to do good until he was outside of the inmate to carpenter pipeline. If he worked at Walkiewicz’s sawmill, he would have been around other inmates as well. He might not have found any room for growth. But even with Pinscher, who did work at the sawmill, he grew a bit himself, learning the meaning of human relationships, realizing what was important to him. He forgot it when he was back in, but Daniel reminded him of it.
Hypocrisy
Unfortunately the world of religion is rife with hypocrisy. Despite being devout, Daniel did not always show kindness, and engaged in the bullying at the detention center. We saw hypocrisy with Father Tomasz, who was an authority figure and a person who Daniel looked up to, but distanced himself from Daniel on the outside world. We saw it in the town too, where you had devout parishioners but they could not find it in themselves to forgive. And then there were the driver and the young people who died in the accident; the driver was demonized when in fact it was likely the young folks who were under the influence.
For many, religion is just going through the motions. That is what Tomasz warned the inmates against at the beginning of the movie. He wanted them to really internalize his teachings. And yet it’s hard to say he fully follows them. But the same goes in the town. It felt like Father Wojciech doubted some of his own teachings as well, like how he didn’t really fully believe in forgiveness, nor did Lidia who was so extremely devout.
Christianity is supposed to give us room to forgive sins. Jesus Christ died for our sins, implying that humans have a natural capacity for sin. And yet so many are against forgiveness. Tomasz right off the bat said that Daniel could not become a priest because of his past, even if he had proven himself devout. And I’d already outlined the different ways that folks could not forgive in this movie.
I’d say it’s more irony than hypocrisy that it took Daniel, a criminal, to get the village to heal. But it had to be him because maybe only a criminal could so strongly sympathize with a criminal.
Overall
I’ll probably have more thoughts on this movie later on. But anyway I enjoyed it!