Blu-Ray BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / Region ABC
RRP: £19.99
Release Date: 23 November 2026
SRBD 112
Blu-Ray |
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A celebrated landmark of Polish cinema, the award-winning Mother Joan of the Angels is presented from a stunning, brand-new 4K restoration.
This stark, exceptional film is based on the infamous and documented ‘demonic possession’ of a group of nuns in Loudun, France in 1634, which led to a priest being burnt at the stake. These scandalous events also inspired Aldous Huxley's 1952 novel The Devils of Loudon and Ken Russell’s notorious 1971 film The Devils. The film is a visually astonishing and profoundly disturbing exploration of faith, fanaticism and repressed sexuality.
Built around an extraordinary lead performance by Lucyna Winnicka, Kawalerowicz creates one of cinema’s most intense portrayals of the tragedy which ensues when passion is crushed by dogma.
This region-free Blu-ray Special Edition presents the film from a stunning, brand-new 4K restoration, plus a an exclusive, new filmed introduction by scholar Michał Oleszczyk , an all-new Projection Booth commentary with Mike White, a filmed appreciation by writer and film historian Michael Brooke, plus a Booklet with essays by scholar Dr David Sorfa and Michael Brooke.
• Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów, 1960) presented from a brand new 4K restoration by by WFDiF and Fixafilm, Poland.
• A newly filmed in-depth introduction to the film by the critic, curator and scholar Michał Oleszczyk.
• An expansive filmed appreciation by producer and film historian Michael Brooke.
• All-new Projection Booth audio commentary by Mike White.
• 32-page booklet featuring essays by author and film lecturer Dr David Sorfa, and Michael Brooke.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• World premiere of the new 4K restoration on Blu-ray.
Lucyna Winnicka – Mother Joan
Mieczysław Voit – Father Józef Suryn / the Rabbi
Anna Ciepielewska – Sister Małgorzata
Maria Chwalibóg – Awdosia
Kazimierz Fabisiak – Father Brym
Stanisław Jasiukiewicz – Chrząszczewski, the Squire
Zygmunt Zintel – Wołodkowicz, the Innkeeper
Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Screenplay – Tadeusz Konwicki and Jerzy Kawalerowicz
from a story by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz
Cinematography – Jerzy Wójcik
Music - Adam Walaciński
Editors - Wiesława Otocka, Felicja Rogowska
Art Direction and Costumes - Roman Mann, Tadeusz Wybult
Sound - Józef Bartczak, Zygmunt Nowak, Józef Tomporek
1961 Cannes Film Festival / Winner: Special Jury Prize
“Mother Joan of the Angels is a film against dogma. That is the universal message of the film... This dogma is itself inhuman. The devils that possess these characters are the external manifestations of their repressed love. The devils are like sins, opposite to their human nature. It is like the devils give the man and woman an excuse for their human love”
Director Jerzy Kawalerowicz
“Mother Joan of the Angels is one of the greatest Polish films” Little White Lies
“This sombre and probing study in hysteria and piety... this is one of the very few truly religious films... Lucyna Winnicka shows such virtuosity in spanning the extremes of malice and saintliness [...] A style which has something of Dryer's concentration on physical objects, Bresson's atmospheric half-tones and a cast of characters evoking Bergman”
Raymond Durgnat, Films & Filming May 1962
“Kawalerowicz's masterpiece... translating inner turmoil into austere images reminiscent of Dreyer” Village Voice
“Stark, sensual and unsettling... serves to imprint scene after scene in your mind” Movie Mail
“A stylistically elegant and morally outspoken picture”
New York Times
“Kawalerowicz’s most overtly stylised film, Mother Joan of the Angels could almost be mistaken for one of Ingmar Bergman’s contemporaneous chamber pieces” Michael Brooke
“Scene after scene it is a work of breathtaking spectacle and complexity, and undoubtedly the crowning achievement of early-60s Polish cinema” Michael Ewins, E-Film
