In the Name Of (2013)

AKA: W Imie…
Directed by: Malgorzata Szumowska
Starring: Andrzej Chyra (Father Adam), Mateusz Kosciukiewicz (Lukasz), Lukasz Simlat (Michal), Maja Ostaszewska (Ewa), Tomasz Schuchardt (Blondi)
Country: Poland; Effed Up European Cinema
Language: Polish; Effed Up Polish Films
Runtime: 01:37:05
Genres: Religion, Gay

Plot – Spoilers:
A scenic countryside Polish village serves as a rustic canvas of nothingness for the lonely lives of a few people there. Principally it’s about Adam, a closeted homosexual priest recently transferred from Warsaw and under whose initiative the parish has organized a reform centre for boys on the cusp of adulthood. Some of them are also closeted, but Adam tries his best to restrict his feelings for them to bathtub faps and instead resorts to sprinting early every morning, which he considers a form of prayer and penance for being gay. There’s also a dissatisfied housewife there who gauges her own attractiveness by the success or failure of her ability to seduce men of religion.

This is an appropriately slow and idyllically interesting take on hiding in a Catholic closet while struggling with the apparent dilemma of being a good person while also being gay.