The Altar Boys

Ministranci

PIOTR DOMALEWSKI
Poland, 2025
110 minutes, Color

The confessional is, for many faithful, a sacred place to lay bare one's sins and seek forgiveness. For the quartet of devout and enterprising teens in director Piotr Domalewski's clever coming-of-age dramedy, it also becomes a lucrative vehicle for social justice. After discovering that their local archdiocese has been lining its pockets with monies donated for the poor, Filip (Tobiasz Wadja) and his three aspiring Christian-rapper young pals set out to right moral wrongs by pilfering collection-box cash to redistribute to those in need. To judge the worthiness of recipients (and get the inside scoop on their town's sinners and saints) the friends bug the parish confessional. What begins as a righteous Robin Hood-esque rebellion grows increasingly risky. Smart, insightful, and deftly treading the line between humor and heart, the film is an entertaining exploration of what happens at the crossroads of religion, redemption, and reality.—Various sources

In Polish with English subtitles