Kler - film review

At last. Nearly a fortnight after the premiere, on Thursday afternoon, having learnt I would not receive files to work on from my workmates from another department, I spontaneously checked availability of seats for Kler screening at 5:00 p.m. in the nearby cinema. Half an hour before the inception of the advertisements (lasted 25 minutes) there still were few single seats free in the upper rows.

I rushed out of the office and marched towards Złote Tarasy. Some seats were still available (though the choice was meagre), during the screening it turned out around two-third of all seats were finally occupied. Two weeks had lapsed, audience of more than two million had seen the film before me, the start time was kind of too early for corpo-rats who slowly contemplate knocking off around 5 p.m, so I did not expect a room chock full of viewers.

The very film…. Highlights problems clergy has not gotten their act together to cope with. As in each motion picture directed by Mr Smarzowski, problems are piled up, fleshed out and illustrated veritably abhorrently. Binge-drinking, hypocrisy, greed, lust for power, pursuit of career at all cost or adultery are common sins of weak humans. Paedophilia, fortunately, is not (though this sin is the most abject). The priests are only humans, they stumble and fall like every human, however are expected to stand for higher moral standards and for centuries have failed to live up to such expectations.

Some scenes show situations we are familiar with (the infamous “co łaska, nie mniej niż dwa tysiące”), others touch up on problems known only to a charmed circle of those privy to dealings of top-of-the-top executives of the world’s biggest and oldest corporation. The film portrays clergy as a jumble of dark characters, however I would not agree that the film lacks a bright side – the ending contains the self-purification of one of the characters, which I believe is his penance for his and the clergy’s sins.

As the final credits appeared on the screen, approximately half of the people, including me, were left numb in the seats, the other half filed out towards the exit. Such reactions of the audience prove Mr Smarzowski remains at his best and no matter whether you appreciate his work or not, the last possible reaction is indifference.

If the turnout (in relative, not absolute numbers) in the polling stations in a week and in three weeks is similar to those recorded during first two weeks of Kler screenings, the tide will turn. One day it will, the only question is how much has to be spoilt before the benighted folks begin to see the light.