Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)

It was the opposite of Inherit the Wind or Footloose. They were also about towns that have only one church, but in those movies the church exerts an almost totalitarian control over the community.

In Diary of a Country Priest, the young priest arrives at his first parish. The community is presumably all-Catholic, but he has no influence over anyone. Even the children preparing for their confirmation don't respect him. His health is bad. He has chronic stomach trouble and often feels weak which doesn't help. Another priest warns him that nobody ever likes priests and advises him to crack down on his parishioners.

He seems like a nice guy, but in his position, he has little to say to anyone, no comfort to give except to argue the Catholic line. 

Here and there, he finds out people are saying terrible or at least unkind things about him. He writes and writes in his diary in lieu of having anyone to talk to which provides the movie's narration. 

There was only one professional actor in the film. The rest were non-actors. Bresson preferred non-emotive acting. Reportedly, he would do repeated takes and wear the actors down to the point that they were mindlessly going through the motions. There must have been an easier way. Like just telling them what he wanted them to do.