It took no less a film than Parasite to pip Polish director Jan Komasa's stunning film Corpus Christi at the post as Best International Film at this year's Oscars. In any other year, Christi would have been the hands-down winner.
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And it's my pick thus far as best film of 2020.
In the film's leading performance as juvenile detention centre inmate Daniel, his eyes ringed by dark circles, his hair shaved in skinhead fashion, young Polish star-on-the-rise Bartosz Bielenia has all the energy of furious youth.
Preparing to leave the detention centre that has been his home for a number of years, Daniel isn't popular among his contemporaries, singled out for beatings and told by his fellow inmates they will find him in the outside world when they too get released.
Daniel's one solace appears to be his work supporting Father Tomasz (Lukasz Simlat) in mass, and singing for the congregation. The young lout pleads to be considered for the seminary, but Father says no seminary would ever accept a convict like Daniel, and has a job for him in the outside world at a sawmill in the country.
Leaving the remand centre with firm instructions to go directly to his new job, Daniel lets loose, takes drugs, meets a girl and is something of a wreck when he arrives in the remote country town.
Visiting the local church first, Daniel is mistaken for a visiting clergyman, mainly because he has a clerical collar he has stolen from Father Tomasz in his bag, and when a personal issue takes the local priest Father Wojciech (Zdzisaw Wardejn) away for a time, Daniel is asked to step into his place.
What at first seems like a lark, fooling the easily fleeced flock takes on a darker note when Daniel discovers the community is an open wound after a car accident the previous year has killed a number of its teenagers in the prime of their life.
Supported by church assistant Marta (Eliza Rycembel), he sets about healing the village, despite the exposure it opens his deception up to.
It isn't too many Polish films that make a dent on the international box office, but director Jan Komasa has made an impact with Warsaw 44 (2014) and Suicide Room (2011).
With Corpus Christi, Komasa has firmed his name in the international film community, taking out dozens of Best Film prizes including one of the top awards at the 2019 Venice Film Festival.
"I'm not sure why the film has been so lauded," Komasa says, "but a lot of people talk about there being a crisis of authority, a crisis of leadership, and I think the film asks questions about who we follow, what we follow, how we think of ourselves as secular human beings."
"The world is having, I wouldn't call it a spiritual crisis, but people look to find their own certainties."
His film is philosophical suspense. What will come first - Daniel's moral redemption or his unmasking?
The film could be played as a comedy of mistaken identity, though while it has great moments of humour, it is instead a nail-biter.
The story is drawn from a real-life tale of a man who fooled a parish for three months as an impostor priest, though screenwriter Mateusz Pacewics used that as a scaffold to explore ideas of who God speaks to and what He might say when he does, of the role religion plays in filling life's emptiness, and who decides what is a sin and who is a sinner.
When a woman comes to "Father" Daniel's confessional talking of beating her son when she caught him smoking, Daniel doesn't order Hail Marys, instead ordering the mother to take her son bike riding.
Growing up in a creative family led to Komasa's interest in masks and social roles.
His father Wieslaw teaches at the Polish National Academy of Dramatic Art, mother Gina is a music and television producer, and his siblings are singers and costume designers.
Growing up in a creative family led to Komasa's interest in masks and social roles.
Initially interested in piano, a gig in one of his mother's television programs in his early teens flared an interest in the work the crew were doing and led to Komasa directing his own short films in high school.
But under his father's influence, Komasa was immersed in the world of performing and developing characters.
"I grew up not only watching my father act, but watching him prepare for roles," he says, "so I grew a sensitivity towards impersonation, a fascination with character."
Komasa spent a lot of preparation time in discussion with pastors and spiritual leaders, as well as people expelled from religious communities, and "people who decided to go on their own, taking an individual path rather than conformity".
It's late when we talk and Komasa, having been doing interviews about his film all day, is being what I point out seem far too articulate about his work.
"My answers get more sophisticated with each and every interview, I'm much more an expert," he laughs, "because as a child actor I learned how to sneak into your expectations to a certain degree."
"Actually I have imposter syndrome myself, I feel like I'm playing the role of director."
With his Academy Award nomination among the 30-odd new awards on his mantle, Komasa is doing a fairly good job at playing director.
- Corpus Christi is screening nationally.