ELIZA RYCEMBEL

CORPUS CHRISTI (2020)
Starring Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel, Tomasz Ziętek, Leszek Lichota, Barbara Kurzaj, Łukasz Simlat, Zdzisław Wardejn, Anna Biernacik and Lidia Bogacz. Directed by Jan Komasa.

20-year-old Daniel has found God whilst incarcerated in a youth detention centre, but his criminal record excludes him from entering the seminary. At the end of his sentence he is sent to a small town to take up a position in a woodworking factory, but thanks to a stolen collar is mistakenly taken as the parish’s new clergyman. It’s a seemingly God-given opportunity for transformation, and Daniel – whilst wholly unconventional in his approach (and after a shaky start) – takes to the pulpit with a fervour and compassion that his predecessor has clearly lacked.

Meanwhile, the arrival of this magnetic young preacher seems to be the spark needed for the town to acknowledge a recent tragedy that has affected the entire community, one that few have been able to speak about. But not everyone is open to his approach, and Daniel learns the hard way that following the road to salvation can also lead one astray.

REVIEWS Corpus Christi - Dreams, deceit and salvation

THE INNOCENTS (2017)
Starring Lou De LaÂge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek, Vincent MacAigne, Joanna Kulig, Eliza Rycembel, Katarzyna Dąbrowska, Anna Próchniak, Helena Sujecka and Mira Maludzińska. Directed by Anne Fontaine.

It's December 1945, and the Second World War is finally over. Mathilde, a young French Red Cross doctor, finds herself in Warsaw treaEng the last of the French soldiers returning from the front. One night, a nun appears at the clinic, begging Mathilde to follow her back to the convent on urgent business. What Mathilde finds there is shocking: a holy sister about to give birth. As Mathilde enters the sisters' fiercely private world, secrets rise to the surface, and modernism and science clash with faith and tradiEon. The nuns go about their strict daily rituals, but inside the convent's chilly stone walls, echoing with their melancholic chants, a dangerous revoluEon is taking place.

REVIEWS The Innocents - A heart-wrenching story of brutality, faith and resolve