Poland: Film stokes debate about sexual abuse

POLAND
DW

October 1, 2018

By Magdalena Gwozdz-Pallokat (Warsaw)

The film “Kler” (“Clergy”) has only just been released in Poland. Hardly anyone has seen it yet, but already it’s adding fuel to the fire in the debate about abuse within the country’s powerful Catholic Church.

The film had already been labelled controversial long before it arrived in cinemas. Now it has, and demand is so high that some movie theaters are screening “Kler” up to 20 times a day. On the other hand, there are also municipalities with conservative local authorities that don’t want it in their cinemas at all. Director Wojciech Smarzowski could hardly dream of better advertising.

The subject matter is one of the hottest topics currently being debated in Poland: How priests deal with money, power and sexuality. And pedophilia. There are many people who want to participate in this debate, especially as it’s taking place in a country where almost half the population regularly attends church on Sundays and more than 90 percent are baptized Catholics.

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