CFF screening - short review - IN THE NAME OF... by Malgorzata Szumowska

Adam, a Polish Catholic Priest who has embraced the religious life to fight back his homosexuality, works in a rural village with teenagers with behavioural difficulties.

Even though Szumowska’s In the Name Of is certainly provocative and often even uncomfortable, it never descends into tastelessness. However, the film constantly struggles to battle off this awkward feeling of being dishonest due to a lack of believable and truly compelling emotional depth – perhaps unaided by the lack of chemistry between Andrzej Chyra who plays Adam (admittedly a tough part to play) and Mateusz Kosciukiewicz who plays his young lover Lukasz.

There are certain notably impactful elements that particularly lie around the Priest’s own internal struggles, sadness, anger and psychological torment - such as the impending shadow of a hostile reaction that hovers more menacingly over his head as the film progresses. As well as that, there is a little sensorial charm in its warm lighting and summertime setting that not only evoke sentiments of ‘sad young men’ of the forties and fifties, which usually dealt lightly with homoerotic themes, but also create an intriguing contrast with the darkness in the soul of the film’s central figure.

Nevertheless, it may not be enough to save In the Name of... the film from being essentially weak or even disappointingly forgettable for better or for worse.