Mother Joan of the Angels

Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów, 1961) is a Polish drama you can watch online on iFILM — Jerzy Kawalerowicz's film that took the Special Jury Prize at Cannes.

Father Józef arrives at a convent to perform an exorcism. The Mother Superior, Joanna, is said to be possessed by eight demons, and Lucyna Winnicka plays her in a way that earned this film its place in cinema history. He comes prepared for battle with dark forces. He's not prepared for what those forces will reveal about himself.

Kawalerowicz doesn't make a horror film. He makes a study of faith under pressure, shot in stark black and white by cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik, who turns the convent's corridors into a geometry of shadow and dread. The tagline — "Maybe the trouble is not demons, but the absence of angels" — is exactly where the story ends up. Stream Mother Joan of the Angels online on iFILM.