MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS Film Screening (Eng subs)
Wednesday 4. February at 18:30 - 20:20
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Jerzy Kawalerowicz | 1961 | Poland | 1h50m | Polish language with English subtitles
MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS stands as one of the great works of Polish postwar cinema, a stark meditation on faith, repression, and desire. Shot in luminous black and white, Kawalerowicz strips the frame to essentials, creating a spiritual vacuum where every gesture feels charged with danger.
Inspired by the real 17th-century Loudun possessions, the film follows a priest sent to investigate a convent where nuns claim demonic influence. His attempt to confront evil becomes a confrontation with his own psyche. The austerity of the setting amplifies the psychological tension. Silence weighs as heavily as dialogue. Rather than spectacle, the film offers an interior horror in which belief itself becomes unstable. It is both religious drama and existential inquiry.
The film arrived during a golden moment for Polish cinema, when directors were pushing against censorship through allegory and historical distance. Kawalerowicz cloaks erotic and political anxiety inside religious imagery, allowing the film to pass official scrutiny while unsettling audiences. Its severe style influenced later European art cinema, especially filmmakers interested in spiritual crisis and institutional power. Decades later it still feels modern, its minimalism sharper than many contemporary horror films.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left behind the jewellery stand. One flight up. Video instructions here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0102 Tbilisi, Georgia
