01
The Devils
Why this pick
Like Mother Joan of the Angels, it turns religious possession and institutional power into feverish psychological conflict, but with a far more baroque, confrontational visual style.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1961 1h 50m POL
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Mother Joan of the Angels
DramaHorror
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Mother Joan of the Angels, try these.
01
02
Ida
Why this pick
Its austere monochrome images, Polish Catholic setting, and controlled emotional intensity closely echo Kawalerowicz’s stark spiritual and moral atmosphere.
03
The Seventh Seal
Why this pick
Its spare black-and-white imagery and philosophical struggle with silence, faith, guilt, and mortality make it a natural companion to Mother Joan’s severe spiritual inquiry.
04
Diary of a Country Priest
Why this pick
Bresson’s rigorously pared-back study of a priest’s inward trial shares the original’s ascetic form, religious doubt, and sense of suffering as a profound moral ordeal.
05
The Convent
Why this pick
Set in a remote convent-like world of scholarship and temptation, this cool, formal mystery sustains the same unsettling collision of desire, ritual, and spiritual unease.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
The story takes place in and around a seventeenth century Polish convent. A priest, Father Józef Suryn (Mieczyslaw Voit), arrives at a small inn for a night's rest. He has been sent to investigate a case of demonic possession at the nearby convent after the local priest, Father Garniec, was burnt at the stake for sexually tempting the nuns. The next day, Father Suryn sets out for the convent, where he meets the abbess, Mother Joan (Lucyna Winnicka), said to be the most possessed of all the nuns. Already four priests before Father Suryn have tried to exorcise Mother Joan, but without success. The villagers at the inn are curious about the convent's troubled past and do everything to keep track of its developing story, with the stableman, Kaziuk (Jerzy Kaczmarek), leading Father Suryn around and asking the only non-possessed nun Sister Malgorzata (Anna Ciepielewska) for stories when she makes her nightly visits to the inn. After Father Suryn learns that Mother Joan is possessed by eight demons, he and several other priests, during an exorcism, manage to exorcise the abbess. She and the other nuns appear cured. Soon after, however, the demonic possession increases. Mother Joan tries to seduce Father Suryn, begging him to make her a saint. In the meantime Sister Malgorzata leaves the convent and becomes Margareth after falling in love with Chrząszczewski (Stanisław Jasiukiewicz), a squire who visits the inn.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Lucyna Winnicka
matka Joanna od Aniołów
Mieczysław Voit
ksiądz Józef Suryn / rabin
Anna Ciepielewska
siostra Małgorzata
Zygmunt Zintel
Zygmunt Malawski
