NR | 1h 36min | Historical Drama | November, 2022
Cardinal Stefan Wszynski was a modest man, who was described in lofty terms. As the highest ranking bishop in Poland, he is known as “The Primate of the Millennium”: In 1966, he presided over the celebration for the 1,000-year anniversary of the founding of the Polish state and the baptism of the country’s leader to Catholicism.
During his tenure, the Communist regime’s surveillance operation launched against the cardinal and his closest allies was ironically code-named “Prophet.”
Despite that constant pressure, Wszynski refused to collaborate, believing the Polish people will eventually outlast and overcome their oppressors, which indeed was prophetic.
Opposing Communism
Wszynski ministered to the Resistance during World War II, so he was doubly suspect to the communists during the 1950s. He spent three years imprisoned or under house arrest, but his closest confidant, Bishop Baraniak, suffered even worse, as viewers see in the brutal opening scene.
Poland’s new communist party boss, Wladyslaw Gomulka, released Wszynski in 1956, as part of a concerted effort to rehabilitate the regime’s image.
Over the succeeding years and decades, any hopes of Wszynski towing the Party line prove delusional. However, the Cardinal has such standing with the nation’s overwhelmingly Catholic population that Gomulka was forced to accept him as a fact of life.
Gomulka tries to bully and intimidate the primate anyway, but Wszynski’s faith makes him immune to such tactics. Yet, he still has to be diplomatic. It is an interesting dance that unfolds in his meetings with Party officials, which Kondrat recreated nearly verbatim from the archival taped transcripts.
Technically, Wszynski’s sermons avoid direct political commentary, but the subtext is all too clear to the Party. Secretly, he goes much further, including ordaining Czechoslovakian priests, who surreptitiously hike in and out of Poland posing as backpackers, since all further investiture of Catholic clergy had been forbidden in their country after the 1968 Soviet invasion.
Wszynski is under constant surveillance and routinely criticized in the state media, but his faith makes him relatively immune to the Party’s tactics. Unfortunately, many of those around him are much more vulnerable, like Kazia (Katarzyna Zawadzka), a rebellious young girl who befriends the Cardinal.
She is a strongly drawn character, but the subplots involving Kazia’s teacher, Magda (Katazyna Zawadzka), and her husband, Janek (Michal Meyer), a newsreel cameraman reluctantly collaborating with Operation Prophet, are definitely the weakest elements of Kondrat’s film.
However, the portrayal of Wszynski is indeed quite inspiring. Admittedly, he is presented in reverential terms, but Slowomir Grzymkowski’s lead performance conveys the inner sadness produced by years of his own isolation and decades of witnessing his people’s suffering.
Mentoring a Leader
Wszynski’s relationship to the future Pope John Paul II is clearly one of the major marketing points for “Prophet,” so he duly appears as a minor but significant supporting player. Andrzej Niemyt bears a strong likeness to the young, charismatic Wojtyla, but his scenes bask in his spiritual awe rather than explore the dramatic complexities of his life.Regardless, Kondrat nicely evokes the realities of Polish life under communism. He vividly captures the state violence unleashed against early Solidarity protesters (union workers who first opposed the communist regime), as well as the constant barrage of Party propaganda.
“Prophet” also scathingly depicts the craven pettiness of Gomulka and the other Party leaders. Frankly, nobody comes out looking worse than the responsibility-dodging Defense Minister (and future leader under martial law) Wojciech Jaruzelski, played with slimy aloofness by Krzysztof Dracz.
Even had he not mentored Wojtyla, Wszynski would still be rightly remembered as an enormously uplifting and influential historical figure.
Yet, the current Catholic Church is tragically no longer the church of his protégé. Neither Pope John Paul II or Wszynski would look the other way while Cardinal Joseph Zen is imprisoned in Hong Kong by the current Chinese communist regime. Wszynski and Wojtyla stood with their people, against their communist oppressors.
If anyone truly must watch “Prophet,” it would be the current pope. However, everyone can learn lessons from Wszynski’s response to tyranny.
Kondrat has crafted a high-quality period production that makes post-war Polish history easily accessible to international audiences. It is a timely film in many ways, coming while Cardinal Zen is on trial and the Polish Church has found renewed purpose serving and ministering to Ukrainian refugees.
Recommended as a drama and a history lesson, “Prophet” has special Fathom Events screenings on Nov. 15 and Nov. 17 at participating theaters nationwide.
