Polish film about Catholic Church paedophilia sets box-office record

A POLISH feature film about the abuses by clergy of the Roman Catholic church is setting attendance records at the country’s box office.

‘Kler’ — named after the Polish word for clergy — attracted over 935,000 viewers last weekend, the country’s best opening three days in 30 years, according to the Association of Polish Filmmakers. The movie, which explores the themes of child abuse, romantic liaisons, corruption, greed and alcoholism by clerics, has been harshly criticised by Poland’s conservative government with close links to the church.

The debut puts a spotlight on the Polish church’s role in concealing cases of paedophilia, an issue that has largely been ignored in the staunchly Roman Catholic nation even after public outcries in Ireland and the US. An appellate court in Poznan, Poland, on Tuesday upheld a $ 269,000 ( RM1.11 million) fine on the church in a case of a priest convicted of imprisoning and raping a 13-year- old girl — an unprecedented penalty for the religious institution in the east European country.

“The film amounts to a very serious conversation with Poles” about the sins of the church, Janusz Gajos, who plays an archbishop in the movie, told TVN24. “It should be a shock — we know of many incidents that are unimaginable, which take place behind the church’s curtains and whose perpetrators are then protected.”

Poland’s human rights ombudsman is looking if a decision by local authorities in Ostroleka, a town in northeastern Poland, to refuse to show the movie in a municipal movie theatre breaches the constitution.

The film topped “Fifty Shades of Grey” as the country’s biggest blockbuster.