Mother Joan Of The Angels
Based on the tale by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz
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Script
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Bells!
Why are they ringing?
That's the custom here.
For lost travellers.
Bishop's orders.
For people lost in the forest.
It is dangerous to be in the forest.
- What's your name? - Juray.
Going back tomorrow?
Yes. The monks want me.
- Are you far from here? - A whole day's journey.
Father...
what thin slices you are cutting.
That way, you won't even know you're eating bread.
That's how we always cut bread at the monastery.
Why?
It's greed and gluttony to devour large pieces.
As I am a Wolodkowicz.
You must be an extraordinary glutton, Father.
May God repay you.
How about telling the Father's fortune, Awdosia?
Why not?
Priests too have fortunes.
Many a maiden or woman...
...seeks her advice before entering a convent.
He'd like to see his future too but he can't.
Tell him something about it.
What should I tell him?
Everything.
Whether his journey will be successful...
...and who he'll meet.
He'll meet a maid who will be a mother.
That's common enough in Poland.
You poor, poor lamb.
You'll love a crooked one.
Blessed be the Lord.
For ever and ever.
The holy maids are waiting for you, Father.
And very impatient they are too.
But no one knew I was coming.
They know everything.
But they tell lies sometimes.
So you too have to come to see the holy maids, Father?
Do you know what's going on there?
What kind of holy maids they are?
Don't say such things.
Leave it to the theologians. You just pray and be silent.
Sister Porteress even left the gate open last night...
...for the priest who is to save them.
How do you know what's going on in the convent?
I do odd jobs there.
Are men allowed in there?
What good is a woman at chopping up big logs?
Or slaughtering a bull or a ram?
Surely the sisters do not eat meat.
They do.
They say the devil tempts them.
Guard us from malice, oh Lord!
I do believe in our Holy Catholic Church...
...as I'm a Wolodkowicz
There's a village, Father...
...where everyone's a Wolodkowicz.
The soil is poor there, we grow just flax and oats.
The apples are sour, the flax is knotty, full of weeds.
But the booze is as strong as anywhere.
Your health...
...Canon
- I'm not a Canon. - Then you will be.
To your health.
It's time.
I must go.
You go to sleep, Juray.
Get up early.
Father Provincial wants you back at once.
Kaziuk!
I must go to the convent.
- Kaziuk will accompany you, Father. - May God repay you.
Blessed be the Lord.
For ever and ever.
He did have some vodka.
Not such a saint after all.
They're all alike. All of them.
Do your holy maids eat pork like us?
What for?
- They have another kind of life. - Don't talk so much.
You'll bring some mischief on us.
As I'm a Wolodkowicz, tell us what's going on in that convent?
Are the devils at large among the holy maids?
Stop that, sir.
It's no joking matter.
People are spying on each other
And reporting to the priests.
Are there many priests in the convent?
Four. To do the exorcising. This one's the fifth.
In Father Garniec's case...
...there were 12 of them who sentenced him to the stake.
They had no reason to burn Father Garniec.
How about the holy maids? Still dancing?
They're up to some better tricks.
Is it true that Father Garniec was a sorcerer?
Are you really sorry for him?
Not sorry, but it's a pity just the same.
Even if he were the worst.
What kind of man was he?
He was no saint.
And he sizzled on the stake like a pig.
How can they burn a man like that?
Go on, eat.
Eat, eat.
How did they do it? They just dragged him to the stake?
Did they take his clothes off?
Did they take his clothes to burn him?
The clothes catch fire first.
So the man is left naked.
Father Joseph!
Welcome, Father Joseph.
I'm Father Brym's housekeeper.
Splendid, Krysia. Now leave me alone with our guest.
- A priest is no guest. - No.
Go and play, children.
Oh, Kaziuk!
Poor lambs.
They're my only comfort.
Orphans?
Their mother is alive.
Their father was burnt.
They're Garniec's children.
What future can they hope for?
The children of a priest and a sorcerer.
Do you believe he had bad intentions?
I may doubt his sorcery but not his bad intentions.
Did Satan get into him?
Yes...
You'll have a hard task here, Father.
I fasted and mortified myself the whole autumn.
I prayed and keep praying. Yet I'm afraid of him.
Of whom?
The Evil One.
I never set foot in the convent.
I have my parish and church.
Father Garniec also kept away, but the women...
...I mean the nuns, were his undoing.
True, he was young and handsome.
While I'm old .
I won't come to Mother Joan of the Angels in her dreams.
Did Father Garniec come to her?
He apparently came right through the convent walls.
That's just the women's tales.
You think so?
I do, but that's between us.
The nuns wanted Father Garniec to come to them.
These maids or the demons in them...
...tell such things...
at the top of their voices, in public.
Saying where the devils sit in them.
In church too. During exorcising.
Such a shame. In church?
Tell this to the exorcising priests.
They say if the people see the devil...
...their faith in God and the Church grows.
That's why they show such things to the people.
Like tricks at a fair.
Can you bring God to a man through the devil?
Who knows, Father, who knows!
It may not be such a bad way.
Maybe saints are made that way.
Unless...
Unless there are no devils in there at all.
Every woman is naturally inclined to fall.
And to be a saint.
It's enough to look at the world.
I don't know the world.
I couldn't say.
My mother became a Carmelite. My sisters were nuns.
I grew up among women who were almost saints.
It is well, dear Father,
that you're pious, and that you don't know women.
I fear you'll have some hard moments here.
- Pray for me, Father. - What's worth the prayer of a sinner?
But pray I shall.
Give me your blessing, Father.
Come on, children. Let's go home.
I'll see you to the convent, Father.
Don't bother.
It's more dignified for a priest that way.
I don't care.
But we do.
I'll always accompany you, Father.
- We're good people. - All of you?
Perhaps not all.
Who knows before evening what the day will bring?
Here we are.
One of the sisters will open the gate.
Sister Margaret.
Mother Superior's been expecting you since yesterday.
Welcome, Father. It's good to see you.
We've been longing for your help.
Our common prayers will help us.
Won't you sit down, Father?
For months we've been beset by great miseries.
The priests who are staying with us have no power over them.
Our only hope is in you, Father.
I've been sent to take care only of you.
The other priests will look after the sisters.
Really? Fine.
If the spirits leave me, they will leave the sisters too.
It all started with me.
- I'll try to free you from your demon. - Eight of them!
Behemoth, Balaam, Isakaron,
Gresil, Aman, Asmodeus, Leviathan,
and Dog's Tail.
Do not listen to them, my daughter. Evil has many shapes and faces.
How long is it since you've been to confession?
Since we were first possessed, half a year ago.
That's a long time. Why did you put off penance?
We didn't.
The demons keep us away from the holy sacraments.
The demons keep you away?
Hasn't perhaps your spiritual laziness taken the shape of those demons?
You don't believe I'm possessed, Father?
I have to, my child, though unwillingly.
Satan enters our souls in many ways.
Oh, he's very powerful.
We know little about the nature of demons.
And what they make the possessed say...
is not to be trusted.
You know they're the sons of falsehood.
What is falsehood, Reverend Father? And what is truth?
Every Christian's conscience...
...should tell him the difference between black and white.
Was it evil that Father Garniec perished because of me?
Ask your conscience.
If I told you what horrors this man did to me.
What abominable things!
I will tell you. I must.
You have to know my inner life,
all my torments, past and present,
if you're to save me
from the pit of solitude where God has cast me.
Calm yourself, my daughter.
Calm yourself.
No one is alone on earth. No one.
I saw him by my bedside.
My Guardian Angel.
He looked like Kaziuk from the inn.
But he had such long hair, down to his shoulders.
He bent over me and touched my breast.
There were five drops of fragrant balm on my gown.
Forgive me. I've no one to tell of my misery and horror.
Defend me.
Defend me, Reverend Father.
All right.
Go to your duties, my daughter. I'll pray here.
Then we'll think of our sins and failings.
My dear... Don't think it will be so easy
to drive me out of this sweet body.
Mother Joan!
I'm not Mother Joan.
I'm no one.
Don't think we're afraid of your Latin.
You filthy priest!
Apage Satanas!
May God be blessed, Sister Margaret.
- For ever and ever. - I thought you weren't coming today.
There's so much work with those exorcisms.
The nuns pray while you do all the work.
I'm out of breath.
I like it here.
It's nicer among people.
I'm very happy to see
a representative of the famous convent.
You must have some exciting tales to tell.
Well...
What can I tell?
You come from the great world
But if it wasn't for you and your convent, we wouldn't be here at all.
The exorcisms brought us here.
The demons leave me alone.
I seem to have a hard soul and an undesirable body.
The new priest will do some real exorcising.
He's too weak for our convent.
He was as pale as death
after talking to Mother Superior.
And she only did the trick with the sooty door handle.
What?
Does Mother Joan cheat?
No. It's the devil who tells her. to blacken the handle every morning
That's not cheating.
She mustn't cheat.
It has to be real!
What did we came here for?
We should have gone to the fair to see the tightrope walkers.
I don't like these fiendish nuns.
A pity the demons don't lift their skirts.
Sometimes they take off their clothes.
Before Father Garniec was burnt
they used to run naked in the garden and call him.
Let's teach the nun to drink.
Let's go.
Come.
Sister, as I am a Wolodkowicz,
have a glass of mead, Sister.
Dear God...
- ...you're just like Tartars. - Take your chance, Sister.
You have to sin at least once. Drink, Sister, drink.
Dear God, what a brute.
Here's to the convent
- And to Mother Joan. - And to Mother Joan!
Here's to the convent.
Oh, my dear, dear mother,
I would take the veil, please,
rather than a husband,
who would be a brute.
Rather than a lover
with a stick to beat me.
Rather than a thrashing
I would take the veil, please.
I would rather sing
with the nuns in the convent,
than take me a husband
and much trouble with it.
I would not mind singing
Matins at cold daybreak
and the Horae Beate...
if this could but save me from a husband's beatings.
Father Suryn is coming.
What are you doing here, my daughter?
I only came to see this woman.
Go and sin no more.
The devil is there and here too.
That's how it is in this world.
- What do you know of the world? - And you, Father?
Not much either.
I have spent all my life in a monastery.
Watch your step, Kaziuk.
To hell with this axe.
I know how you abhor my coming to fight you.
Here is your kingdom but I've been sent in the name of God.
I belong to another kingdom, the Kingdom of Light.
As you to the Kingdom of Darkness.
I belong to Good and you to Evil.
Kaziuk, do you believe in the devil?
- I do. - Have you seen him?
I have.
With horns?
Stupid.
It had wings and Mother Superior's face.
- What did he look like? - Don't be so curious.
Tell me.
I've never seen the devil.
Neither have I.
I must say...
I didn't see him properly.
But I saw him torment the sisters.
Particularly our Superior, Mother Joan of the Angels.
- Is that what she's called? - Yes.
- Mother Joan of the Angels. - Yes.
She ought to be called Mother of the Devils.
It's awful to be alone in the world.
What if the devil gets into me?
Devils don't care for the likes of us.
You're only saying so.
Sometimes I hate my dad so much I could kill him.
And if you kill your dad, the devil will never let you go.
Why kill your dad? He'll die some day anyway.
If he dies, he dies, but before he dies he'll go on being bad.
He beats Mother and me too.
Pray for him.
To hell with him.
Say, "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
"God, guard my father"
That I can say. God guard my father.
Now go to sleep.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
I am asleep.
Good night.
Satan!
I order thee to leave the body of the most reverend Mother Joan of the Angels.
Leave her!
Leave her, Satan!
I won't!
I won't! Whatever you do.
I won't. I don't want to. I don't want to.
Balaam, Isakarom, Asmodeus,
Gresil, Aman, Leviathan, speak!
Which of you is it?
It's Dog's Tail, at your service.
Answer me, Dog's Tail,
Wilt thou leave the body of this woman if I order thee?
I will at once,
But what about my brothers?
Balaam is in my head, Gresil in my belly, and Asmodeus...
Satan, I order thee to leave her!
I'm not Mother Joan.
I'm a devil! My name is Gresil.
Gresil, thou didst not enter this woman
against God's will,
Thou owest obedience to those who speak in God's name.
Wilt thou be obedient?
I will.
Show us, Evil Spirit, how Seraphs worship the Lord of Hosts.
How do Seraphs worship the Lord of Hosts?
Gresil,
Now show us how kings praise the Almighty.
I order thee in the name of God,
...to pay homage to the sign of our salvation.
Don't order him to do it, Father. He'll torment me.
- Pay homage, I order thee! - No, I won't!
No, I won't!
I won't pay homage!
No earthly or heavenly power can force me to do that.
I am eternal.
No, no, no!
Humble thyself!
- Humble thyself! - Humble thyself!
No, no, no!
Accursed be God the Father and the Son and the Ghost...
...and the Blessed Virgin and all Heaven!
Oh, Holy Cross. Oh, Holy Virgin Forgive me all my blasphemies.
Oh, God!
Oh, Lord, defend me from Satan.
Sister.
You frightened me again.
No more exorcising in church?
There will be more.
But Mother Superior is to be kept in solitude.
- In solitude. - Yes.
Kneel down, Mother Joan.
Kneel down, my daughter.
Let us pray together.
I'll say the prayers and you try to communicate with me in the spirit.
May peace come upon you.
Love drives Evil away. Fill yourself with love.
Is it possible not to give love for love?
Let us pray.
Our Father who art in Heave, Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Hosanna.
We cleaned up the place nicely, but the pigeons are a nuisance
- Tell Odrym to patch up the holes in the roof. - Yes, Mother Joan.
There are so many of those sweet birds.
- No one will disturb you here. - Thank you, Sister.
In solitude you may get rid of your pride.
Your greatest sin.
Mother Joan, when you're among people you only think of your superiority.
Who am I,
but a poor servant of the Lord,
who worships Him in a remote convent?
I'm only a nun.
What if my father is a prince of an impoverished branch?
He sits in his Smolensk marshes. No one knows him.
Is it my fault that I'm possessed,
by eight powerful demons?
Be good like a child.
Be happy like a child.
God loves us very much.
Very much.
What if Satan leaves me and takes possession of you?
God have mercy upon my sinful soul.
There's no truth on earth.
You utter words of despair again.
After so many days of prayer, so many nights of humility.
Don't!
The devils are rising up in me again.
You yourself are becoming a devil.
- No. - Let go. Let go!
- May God be blessed. - For ever and ever.
Father Suryn is out.
I've come to see you,
you have no idea what's going on in the convent.
No one is to move a step outside the gate.
They're making bars for Father Suryn.
Mother Joan's been worse than ever.
It looks as bad as with Father Garniec.
Shut up!
It may be an evil hour.
The squire too keeps coming back to our muddy village.
They say he's borrowing money from local Jews.
Squires don't do such things.
You know nothing about it.
Don't I? When it started with Father Garniec...
You must be surprised to see me back. Something attracted me here.
Are you so curious about the convent?
It's here, Father.
What's the good of my coming here?
Who knows? He's a wise man.
He always says, "Don't ask for trouble",
"It comes uninvited".
Please, come in.
The rabbi is expecting you.
Salve.
You must be surprised.
Not at all.
I've been expecting to see one of you here.
Do you know?
I do.
What they are?
A priest asking a poor rabbi.
What demons are?
Don't you know?
Maybe the trouble is not demons but the absence of angels.
Mother Joan's angel has gone and now she's alone with herself.
Maybe it's only human nature.
Stop this mockery, Jew.
You sit over your books by candlelight,
and you don't care that people suffer. That these women...
...these women suffer?
Let them suffer. That's their fate.
No one can escape his fate.
What do you know of demons?
Sit down, priest.
Say, what's an evil spirit, where does he abide,
what is he, where does he come from? Who made him?
Adonai
God.
Who else could have made him?
What if Satan created the world?
Enough!
For if the Lord created it...
...why is there so much evil in it?
Death and sickness and wars...
Why are we Jews being persecuted?
Why are our sons being slaughtered? Our daughters raped?
Original sin.
The fall of the first parents?
How many times did man fall and rise?
How many times has patient Abel been killed by Cain?
All the evil man commits.
is no measure of the evil that torments him.
The fall of the first man, the fall of the first angel.
Why did angels come down from heaven,
to beget giants on earthly women?
Tell me. Why, Father?
Angels are mysterious beings.
Your Mother Joan calls herself 'Of the Angels',
But what does she know of angels?
What are angels, Priest?
God sends them.
And who sends the devil?
Unless God wills it, Satan cannot possess a man's soul.
When can he possess it?
When man loves him very much.
Can man love Satan?
Love is at the root of everything on Earth.
We had a young squire here who loved a Jewish girl so much...
...that when he died he took possession of her soul.
She was brought here,
and stood where you stand,
And I called on this spirit to leave her.
Did he?
He would not be driven out.
You see!
He said to me he would not leave he. He took her soul.
The girl died.
Love is as strong as death.
I shall learn nothing from you.
You'd like to learn everything at once..
What my great grandfather taught...
...and his great grandfather.
All that was written in the scrolls, in the Zohar and the Temureh...
You want me to give it to you in three words.
Just like some business receipt.
One, two, three, and that's all?
You want to hear about all demons,
created by Father Adonai?
And those born of countless angels and earthly women?
Those that have risen in you...
...to obscure your reason... ...and to take away your wisdom...
And those that are now in your heart...
You want to know all about demons?
Let them enter your soul.
My demons are my business and my soul is my own.
You are me and I am you.
Oh, God. What are you saying?
You know nothing, Priest.
You walk in darkness. Your ignorance is like the black cloak of night.
I can teach you nothing.
My teachings are not your teachings.
You are me.
Be gone!
Be gone.
I too know nothing.
Nothing at all.
Sister, tell Mother Superior to come to the attic.
- To the attic? - Yes.
Tell her there will be no exorcisms.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth...
...and called thee from the chief men thereof,
I have chosen thee and not cast thee away.
Fear thou not for I am with thee.
Why have you called me?
I desire your salvation.
Where is salvation?
It's so difficult for me to speak my heart.
Speak,
I'll take it upon myself.
I shall absorb your sins.
The most terrible thing is that I like Satan.
It gives me joy being possessed.
I'm proud this fate has befallen me.
That the demons torment me more than the others.
You commit the sin of pride again. Pray for your humility.
I am lost.
I too thought I was lost But now I don't believe it.
I am strong, powerful, Mother Joan, I shall lead you
Where to?
What way are you showing me?
You only want me to be calm, colourless, small.
To be just like any ordinary nun.
All right.
Listen.
I myself open my soul to the demons.
But you want me to be like the thousands...
...who have no aim on earth.
You want to see me at prayer all day long.
To see me eating beans every day.
Do you promise me salvation for this?
I do not want such salvation.
If one can't be a saint, it's better to be damned.
Oh, if only you could make me a saint.
I want nothing else.
Do you know what it means to understand everything?
It means to be one with light eternal and yet remain on Earth.
To stand on altars with candles and incense.
To return in prayer to all lips.
Oh, that is life...
That is life eternal.
If not...
If not, I'd rather be with the devils.
Joan, calm yourself.
Calm yourself.
All redemption is in love.
Love is as strong as death.
Make a saint of me.
No...
That I cannot do.
Father Suryn!
- Don't crush the grain. - I'm scaring off the wolves.
Wolves, right.
Aleksy!
Why is the child crying?
She's wet herself, Father.
Take her to the kitchen or she'll catch a cold.
And you wanted to scare off the wolves.
Good.
Well, yes, I think I'm being tempted to this sweet beer by some lesser demon.
For if evil exists, it can be great and small.
The great devil is called Behemoth.
And the small one, Beer, perhaps.
Go home, Father Joseph. Go at once,
The journey will calm you.
You'll go back to your cell, see your books...
...and the demons may leave your body and soul.
No.
No!
I don't want them to.
Let him stay in me.
He is me and I am him.
I don't want to expell him!
The devil who possessed her soul and body.
Bells.
For those who are lost.
You can hear them far away.
I like these bells.
They ring every day.
It's terrible in the forest, isn't it?
The wolves howl.
The Evil One is at work.
So?
She has changed already.
Remember, we leave before dawn.
Hold it!
Stop!
Oh, my dear, dear mother,
I would take the veil, please,
rather than a husband
who would be a brute.
Rather than a lover
with a stick to beat me;
Rather than a thrashing
I would take the veil, please.
I would rather sing
with the nuns in the convent,
than to take a husband
and much trouble with it.
Why have you stopped singing?
Go on dancing and enjoying yourselves.
God will forgive you for you know not what you do.
Man is a queer fish.
What will become of your Mother Joan?
She'll stay a nun.
And the devil?
The devil will always find work.
The devils left Mother Joan and possessed Father Suryn.
Sister Margaret too it seems.
Has the squire come for her?
He's possessed too.
She's so ugly.
I like her.
She's big.
What about your dad?
Drinking and beating.
Do you pray for him?
No.
Pray with me.
Say, "God guard my father".
I don't mind if I do.
- God, guard my father. - And everybody.
And everybody.
Amen.
Now go to sleep.
Good night.
You've come so soon.
So soon.
Go away!
Don't torment me.
No!
Stay!
I know that if you leave me you'll go back to Mother Joan.
Don't go!
Let her be free.
Let her be a saint.
Take me.
And don't ever go back to Mother Joan.
Don't ever leave me!
Ever.
What must I do?
No! Don't order me to do that.
Stay!
Yes, I remember.
Yes, I remember where the axe is.
I remember.
The stable smells of blood, Squire.
Don't talk nonsense.
- The horses sense something. - Mount!
- And the lady? - Let's go!
The squire's gone.
Do you hear me! The squire has deserted me!
It's all your fault. You talked me into sin.
- What? Has he gone? - You talked me into sin.
Sister Margaret!
The squire has deserted me.
You, son of the devil, to hell with you.
- What am I going to do now? - Kaziuk!
They have been killed.
The grooms have been killed.
Kaziuk and the others, murdered.
Dead.
I'll call the priest.
Father Suryn!
They were innocent.
They went to heaven.
Father Suryn...
Dear God!
Now I'm in Satan's power for ever.
Father Suryn the squire has deserted me.
Go back.
I won't go back to the convent.
I can't.
I do not want to.
Go!
Go and tell Joan I did it for her.
For her good. To save her.
To keep the devils in me. They wanted to go back to her.
Tell her. Don't forget.
Tell her, I did it out of love.