Mother Joan of the Angels (Samizdat Film Festival) PG

Special collaboration between Peacock Cinema and the 2026 Samizdat Film Festival. This film will take place in the Studio at Carnegie Hall.

We’re excited to be collaborating with Samizdat in presenting their first-ever screening in Dunfermline: a Halloween special of a landmark of Polish cinema, Mother Joan of the Angels – an austere religious horror that follows a priest sent to a remote 17th-century convent following reports of demonic possession.

About Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów)

One of the defining works of post-war Polish cinema, Mother Joan of the Angels follows a priest sent to a remote convent to investigate reports of demonic possession among the nuns. As he attempts to exorcise Mother Joan, the convent’s possessed prioress, he becomes increasingly unsettled and drawn to her. Their encounter develops into a spiritual and moral struggle in which religious fervour, suppressed passion and the desire for salvation become entangled with the fear of sin and the presence of evil.
Drawing on the same 17th-century Loudun possessions that Ken Russell later revisited in The Devils, Kawalerowicz takes a radically different approach. Shot in stark black and white, with severe compositions and stripped-back settings, the film replaces baroque spectacle with formal restraint, ritual and psychological tension, giving the drama an austere, almost abstract intensity.

This screening will be preceded by a short in-person welcome and a pre-recorded introduction.

Dir: Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Cast: Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit
Country of production: Poland
Production Year: 1961

About Samizdat Film Festival

Named after the practice of clandestine dissemination of censored and forbidden texts in communist states, Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival returns for its 5th edition, bringing an ever-eclectic mix of some of the most exciting, powerful, thoughtful, weird and wonderful filmmaking from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus to audiences across Scotland!

Audience Access Fund

Samizdat know that the cost of tickets – as well as things like childcare or travel – can make it harder for some people to attend events. They have the Audience Access Fund to support with such costs, no proof of eligibility required: just email them at hello@samizdatfest.co.uk.