W imieniu diabła (In the Name of the Devil) by veteran director Barbara Sass-Zdort, is one of twelve films competing in the Main Competition of the Polish Film Festival this week in Gdynia.
The plot revolves around a maverick priest who enters a Polish convent and swiftly sets about converting the nuns to a highly unorthodox conception of embracing their faith, calling on the sisters to surrender their bodies to the Lord.
The film bears many parallels with the 2007 scandal that shocked Poland, when police had to break into a barricaded convent in the picturesque town of Kazimierz Dolny.
A baby was soon discovered on the premises of the convent, and a renegade Franciscan monk was led away from the premises in handcuffs, thus terminating a saga that had dragged on for two years.
“I myself am a Catholic and I have not done this film against the Church,” the director affirmed at the festival this week, as screenings got under way.
“It was conceived against people who try to manipulate others so as to realise their goals,” she said.
Likewise, she expressed her hopes that the film would not be solely evaluated in the context of the scandal, “although I know I won't be able to escape this,” she admitted.
"I did not try to document what happened there, and I did not want to talk with the nuns who were there,” she reflected.
The director added that her main focus was in exploring the dilemma of her fictional heroine, Sister Anna, who struggles against the priest's machinations.
“We have already shown the film to priests and the majority of them accepted it,” she revealed.
“Some even said that we could have gone further but I didn't want to do this – my sense of taste precluded it.”
Wild rumours have already circulated about the film. It was alleged that the Polish distributor had said that if the movie does not win awards, the film will only be circulated in one print. A spokesman for the company vigorously denied this at a press conference at the festival, however.
In the Name of the Devil, is set to go on general release in September. (nh)
Source: PAP