After its huge success at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, where it won as many as eight awards, including the Golden Lions and the Audience Award, “The Altar Boys” will be shown ahead of its release in 200 cinemas across Poland. Audiences will see it at special screenings on 11 November.
MEET THE ALTAR BOYS
The film’s four main characters are a group of friends who believe they can change their community – help the poor, set petty thieves on the right path, drag other people’s sins out into the open. Yet, as they themselves observe – doing good is not easy.
“Confession is something very intimate, and recording it is wrong in itself. But in the film our characters do it in the name of good, which changes the perspective” – says Mikołaj Juszczyk, the film’s Kurczak, about the altar boys’ actions.
“Thanks to the wiretap we could work out which family needed help. The parish wasn’t doing it, so the boys took matters into their own hands” – adds Filip Juszczyk, who plays little Kurczak in the film.
“Gucci has a strong moral backbone and the ability to judge things rationally. Those are qualities I would like to aspire to myself” – stresses Bruno Błach-Baar, who plays Gucci
“I liked the fact that it is children, not adults, who try to change the world for the better. I like the contrast between the characters – Gucci comes from a wealthy home, while Filip is being raised by his mum, who is out of work” – adds Tobiasz Wajda, the film’s Filip.
“The Altar Boys” is a film that strikes an ideal balance between reflection on the need for faith, community and agency, and an incisive social commentary with an uplifting message. The film’s authenticity is built on Piotr Domalewski’s personal experience – he was an altar boy for 12 years. As a result, “The Altar Boys” is a story about a world he knows from the inside, and one we rarely see on screen in such an honest and ambiguous form.
A FILM THAT UNITES CRITICS AND AUDIENCES
The film was a huge success at the most important festival of Polish cinema, whose 50th edition was held in Gdynia. For the first time in the festival’s entire history, one film received both the Golden Lions and the Audience Award. It was also selected for the Polish Competition of the Camerimage festival.
The film was made in co-production with the Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury and the Mazowiecki i Warszawski Fundusz Filmowy, with the support of the Polish Film Institute.
The film’s Polish distributor is NEXT FILM.
Premiere on 21 November. Only in cinemas.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
A group of teenage altar boys, frustrated by the indifferent attitude of adults and the institution of the Church to social injustice, decides to implement its own, unusual plan of moral renewal. Armed with youthful rebellion and their own interpretation of Scripture, they plant a listening device… in the confessional, to get to know their neighbours better. Masked like Zorro and with ambitions worthy of Robin Hood, they become the judges of their housing-estate world, helping those in need and meting out punishment for sins. But their mission turns into a dangerous game, and the boys, applying their own idealistic code of honour, begin to balance on the fine line between good and evil. The real life of the estate blends with a mission straight out of superhero comics – only instead of capes, the heroes wear surplices.
DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FILM
Premiere: 21.11.2025
Directed by: Piotr Domalewski
Screenplay: Piotr Domalewski
Cinematography: Piotr Sobociński Jr.
Editing: Agnieszka Glińska
Production design: Jagna Dobesz
Costumes: Aleksandra Staszko
Make-up: Daria Siejak
Music: Wojciech Urbański
Sound: Jerzy Murawski, Wojciech Mielimąka
Casting director: Nadia Lebik
Producers: Leszek Bodzak, Aneta Hickinbotham, Piotr Walter, Jarosław Jakubiec
Production: Aurum Film
Production manager: Marta Kapczyńska-Czwartosz
Co-production: Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury, Mazowiecki i Warszawski Fundusz Filmowy
Co-financing: Polish Film Institute, Mazowieckie Voivodeship, the Capital City of Warsaw
Distribution in Poland: NEXT FILM
Cast: Tobiasz Wajda (Filip), Bruno Błach-Baar (Gucci), Mikołaj Juszczyk (Kurczak), Filip Juszczyk (Mały Kurczak), Daria Kalinchuk (Dominika), Kamila Urzędowska (Filip’s mother), Tomasz Schuchardt (retreat priest), Sławomir Orzechowski (parish priest), Artur Paczesny (Dominika’s father)
Joanna Jakubik
