Strawman

Figurant (Strawman, 2023) is a Polish historical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Robert Gliński. It's not about Karol Wojtyla. It's about the officer assigned to watch him.

Budny has been tracking the bishop — who will become Pope John Paul II — for twenty years. No direct contact. He reads intelligence reports, writes assessments, files updates on a man who doesn't know the surveillance exists. An unreciprocated bond forms: Budny's entire professional life organised around someone else's biography. Mateusz Więcławek plays this with controlled silence.

The film never turns into a political statement or a papal hagiography. It stays inside Budny's point of view — the correct choice, and the unsettling one. Stream Figurant (2023) online on iFILM.