Jerzy Kawalerowicz should be a household name. He is a great, great filmmaker, equal in stature to his compatriot, Andrzej Wajda.

Even today, MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS, released in 1961, is a shocking film. It is based on a novel by contemporary writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz. This, in turn, relies on 17th century documents about the events at the convent of Loudon; the same material inspired Aldous Huxley’s novel, “The Devils of Loudon” and Ken Russell’s film with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, The Devils. 

Iwaszkiewicz and Kawalerowicz transpose the action from France to Poland. In 1630, a convent of Ursuline nuns became obsessed with a womanizing priest named Urban Grandier. The convent asks him to be their spiritual director, but he declines. In a jealous rage, Mother Joan accuses Grandier of using black magic to seduce her and her sisters, and to possess them with devils. This invites the enemies of Grandier to join the side of the possessed nuns, use horrific exorcisms to implicate him, try him, find him guilty of witchcraft, torture him and finally burn him at the stake.  

MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS takes up the story after these dramatic events, as a priest, Father Suryn, is set to investigate a case of demonic possession at a nearby convent after the local priest was burnt for sexually tempting the nuns.  

Kawalerowicz shot the film in sparing black and white, relying on the high contrast to create imagery that is evocative, symbolic, and shockingly powerful. Some indelible images: the white clad-nuns lying prostate on the stone floor of the convent. In shot after shot, Kawalerowicz emphasizes the physical; the bodies of the nuns possessed, in convulsions of what we might interpret as either ecstasy or torment.  When Father Suryn, the exorcist first arrives, the tension between him and Mother Joan is palpably sexual.

Seen today, it is easy to interpret MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS as a high point of artistic abstraction, a masterpiece of Polish symbolism. But coming, as it did in 1961, in a communist Poland still reeling from Stalinist doctrine, MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS was positively revolutionary, a courageous cry against those “possessed” of orthodox doctrine. In the predominantly Catholic Poland, the Catholic Church was first against the film. Kawlerowicz said, “They forbade people from watching it. They put signs on church doors, saying that watching this film is a mortal sin.” But times do change. Several decades later, Kawalerowicz met a bishop who told him that when the film was first released, he was against it. Now he is not. “So even people in the Catholic Church can change,” said Kawalerowicz. 

In an interview, Kawalerozicz said that MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS “is a film against dogma. That is the universal message of the film. It is a love story about a man and a woman who wear church clothes, and whose religion does not allow them to love each other. They often talk about and teach about love—how to love God, how to love each other—and yet they cannot have the love of a man and a woman because of their religion. This dogma is itself inhuman. The devils that possess these characters are the external manifestations of their repressed love. The devils are like sins, opposite to their human nature. It is like the devils give the man and woman an excuse for their human love. Because of that excuse, they are able to love.” 

The film career of Kawalerowicz spanned over almost 50 years. His other early masterpieces include UNDER THE PHRYGIAN STAR and NIGHT TRAIN. In 1966, he made what was one of the largest and most ambitious historical epics, PHARAOH, and he returned to ancient history with a film that became an international box-office hit, the 2001 QUO VADIS.


There is a retrospective of Jerzy Kawalerowicz's work at the 20th Annual Polish Film Festival in America this week.

Milos Stehlik’s commentaries reflect his own views and not necessarily those of Facets Multimedia, Worldview or Chicago Public Radio.