To Kill a Priest

One of the first films by Polish director Agnieszka Holland to gain international acclaim, this drama is a joint French-American production based loosely on the real-life story of the dissident Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko. In the early 1980s, as the democracy and labor movement known as ...more

Although it lacks the tragicomic punch of Europa, Europa, her next directorial effort, this thoughtful 1989 film by Polish New Wave director Agnieszka Holland explores the same themes of sullied ideals and institutional barbarism that thread through much of her varied oeuvre. Ed Harris gives a compelling lead performance as Stefan, the Communist loyalist let down by his party and inexplicably stirred by the activism of a priest. Pete Postlethwaite, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, and several others also ...more