Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik

Good Friday at Pruchnik, in Poland, is the setting for a curious ritual. Although, as elsewhere, all draws ceremoniously to a close with a religious service, the traditional ritual of the Stations of the Cross was replaced a century ago by a simulated lynching of a blatantly anti-Semitic nature. A straw and hemp Judas, with a hooked nose and small hat, is made during the night and hung at dawn, dragged through the town, beaten, decapitated, burnt and thrown in the river, much to the children’s amusement. The shots of this sinister parade are interspersed with photos of the first ceremonies. Seeing these sombre images, it is difficult not to think of Agnieszka Holland’s film, Le complot. The same intolerance, the same stupidity, the same sadism. (Yann Lardeau)