Poland social briefing: Success of the "Corpus Christi" film and the Polish cinematography

ISSN: 2560-1601

                                                                                      Vol. 26, No. 3 (PL)

                                                                                                Febr 2020

                                           Poland social briefing:
Success of the “Corpus Christi” film and the Polish cinematography
                                         Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

                                                               1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

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Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft.
                                                               office@china-cee.eu
Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin
Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping                          china-cee.eu

2017/01

Success of the “Corpus Christi” film and the Polish cinematography

      The turn of January and February 2020 was dominated by debates about the chances of
the film “Corpus Christi” to win an Oscar Academy Award in the category of the Best
International Feature Film. The movie was not awarded, but the nomination itself is treated in
terms of a great success. This is another such huge achievement of Polish cinematography in
recent years and an indication that Polish culture is an important component of the world
culture.

      The success of the “Corpus Christi” feature film
      Oscar nominations are granted in 24 categories. Two to five nominations are announced
in each of them. The exception is the Best Film category, in which as many as 10 films have
been nominated since 2010. The film by Jan Komasa “Corpus Christi” had a chance to receive
an Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category. However, it had to face four really
strong competitors. Among the competitors of “Corpus Christi” were the French “Les
Misérables”, the Northern Macedonian “Honeyland”, as well as the South Korean “Parasite”,
and Spanish “Pain and glory”. Eventually the Oscar statuette was awarded to “Parasite” directed
by Bong Joon Ho (the film also proved to be a winner in several other important categories).

      However, for the Polish viewers and cultural critics, more important was the fact, that
Komasa’s film was spotted through an international film milieu and has gained an international
reputation. In Poland alone, over 1,5 million viewers saw it on screen within 18 weeks. Since
its premiere in the Giornate degli Autori competition at the Venice International Film Festival,
the movie has been invited to almost 60 festivals, and the rights to the film have been sold to
45 countries. The Polish candidate for the Oscar has won awards i.e. in Venice, El Gouna,
Chicago, Reykjavik, Bordeax and Luxembourg. The picture took part moreover in the
prestigious Contenders event, and was also on the AFI Fest program in Los Angeles.

      In addition, Komasa and his team have won 10 statuettes during last year’s 44th Polish
Film Festival in Gdynia - including for the best direction and screenplay. Bartosz Bielenia, who
plays the main role, also collected numerous awards. At the beginning of January 2020, he
received the title of European Shooting Star 2020. Earlier he was appreciated, among others,

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during the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt. The actor has also won the Polish Award of
Zbyszek Cybulski for 2019, granted to “young actors with outstanding individuality”.

      The plot and current relevance of the movie theme
      The film “Corpus Christi” tells a story of a twenty-year-old Daniel, who while in the
juvenile retreat, undergoes a spiritual transformation and secretly dreams of becoming a priest.
After conditional release, the boy befriends the priest of a small parish. In the absence of the
clergyman, Daniel takes advantage of an unexpected opportunity and pretends to be a priest in
the town. His methods of evangelization raise considerable controversy among the inhabitants,
but over time the teachings and charisma of the false priest move people and win him their
sympathy. After a few weeks in disguise of a priest, the man is recognized by a colleague of
old times and must return to the juvenile reformatory.

      The film touches very sensitive questions today, which are suspended in the public space:
does faith make clerks or only a cassock? Who can be a priest? What role should the Catholic
church play in modern Poland, and which role does it actually play at present? These issues are
extremely contemporary, because the Catholic church is currently experiencing a very difficult
period in relations with society - mainly due to the repetitive cases of pedophilia, violence,
financial greed and a strong connection with the political class. Komasa’s movie shows that
faith, trust and goodness are first and foremost related to people, not to the institution of the
church.

      After the sharp film “Kler” by Wojciech Smarzowski from 2018, and the shocking
documentary movie of the Sekielski brothers “Don’t tell anyone” (2019), “Corpus Christi” is
another film about the situation of the Polish church. Screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz and
director Jan Komasa tell a story that has really happened, although, as the creators say, it is the
sum of many events and many biographies. Yet, the greatest advantage of this movie is the fact,
that “Corpus Christi” can show where Poles are, and what they are as citizens and believers –
still, without pointing at anyone’s fingers, but also without making clear diagnoses. In fact, the
message of the picture is smooth, understated, out of focus, it marks a very large area in which
everyone can feel at home. And that is the reason why the movie pleases the world - it fits many
frames and many circumstances.

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Latest achievements of Polish cinematography
      The success of this film confirms that Polish cinema is currently in one of its best periods.
International film awards received in recent years by, among others, Paweł Pawlikowski (“Cold
war”, “Ida”), Jan Komasa (“Suicide Room”, “Corpus Christi”), Agnieszka Holland (“Spoor”)
and Małgorzata Szumowska (“33 scenes from Life”, “In the Name of”) indicate that a lot of
good happened in Polish cultural life. Indeed the successes of “Cold War” (nominated in the
Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography categories at the 91.
Academy Awards in 2019) and “Corpus Christi” are the result of the Act on financial support
for audiovisual production, which was adopted by the Polish parliament in November 2018.

      Undeniably, this Act was a breakthrough moment for the film industry in Poland. Thanks
to the new law, producers of feature films, animated films, documentaries and series have the
possibility of reimbursement of production costs incurred in Poland in the amount of 30% of
eligible expenditure. Thus, after many years of efforts, Poland joined group of countries that
introduced the system of “financial incentives”, thanks to which the country strengthened its
position as a friendly place for film productions. During the first few months of the act being
in force, support was granted to 26 projects for a total amount of over PLN 51,3 million (EUR
12 million), of which the largest support granted amounted over PLN 6,15 million (EUR 1,44).

      The operator of this financial motivation is the Polish Film Institute, the most important
institution supporting cinematography in Poland. The Polish Film Institute was established in
2005, in place of the Cinematography Committee, and its task is to maintain financially the
production of films of high artistic value. The consequence of its creation was a broad financial
support for the development of cinematography, which translated into an increase in the number
of participants in Polish cinemas and the number of international co-productions, as well as the
promotion of film education in schools. The Institute supports professional development
programs run by public and private film schools, including The Andrzej Wajda School, and the
Warsaw Film School.

      Conclusion
      The success of Jan Komasa’s film is a coincidence of many different circumstances.
Certainly the most important of them is excellent directing, great acting and a very good script
that tells a current and important story from the Polish viewer’s perspective. At the same time,
it is also a general story, showing the importance of faith, love and trust, close to people around
the world. In fact this motion picture is part of an international return to axiological debate and

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reflection on the world. As it turns out, Central Europe - and Poland in particular - can create a
message that is both local and universal in this respect.

      However, the success of “Corpus Christi” is also a triumph of the Polish Film Institute,
which has been actively supporting Polish young and older generations of filmmakers for
several years. The effect of this financial assistance is international recognition, which makes
Poles proud of the creators’ achievements and causes that Polish viewers are increasingly
willing to come to cinemas to watch native productions - over half of the tickets sold in 2019
(over 57 million tickets in total) were tickets for Polish productions. It’s a big quantitative
change, because for many years Polish viewers watched mainly American super-productions.
It is a good prognosis for the film market, that this trend is slowly changing.

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