Poland is drab enough. At least people see it that way. This movie's desaturated color makes it worse. Movies with prison scenes are bad enough as it is. Most of it had kind of an interesting setting, a small Polish town.
Youthful offender Daniel gets out of juvenile prison where he served a sentence for second degree murder. He found religion there, which in Poland means he became devoutly Catholic. The priest tells him they don't let ex-convicts into seminaries. Which may be just as well since he has a sex scene in a restroom as soon as he's out of prison. I guess I can also tell you that headbutting is the young fellow's fighting technique of choice.
Daniel travels to a small town where a job awaits him at a sawmill. Instead, he puts on a clerical collar and claims to be an itinerant priest. He's asked to take over at the parish while the regular priest goes for medical treatment. He becomes popular for his unorthodox style but alienates much of the town when he takes an unpopular stand on a local tragedy.
Maybe it would make a double feature with Catch Me if You Can although, in Spielberg's movie, the imposter does nothing for anyone, steals millions of dollars and endangers people's lives. And yet that film would be the upbeat one.
Available on the Criterion Channel.
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