Johnny

Johnny (2022) is about a priest who really lived, and who was a very well known figure in Poland. Jan Kaczkowski founded a hospice in the town of Puck. He called himself an onco-celebrity, because he had cancer himself and made a joke of it. He swore, spoke bluntly, and never used the register expected of a clergyman. He died in 2016. The film does not present him as a saint. Its narrator is Patryk, a small time criminal sent to do community service at the hospice by court order, who tries to run away on his first day. The relationship between the two of them is the centre of the film. The source of the screenplay matters: the writer built it from hearing the story directly from the real Patryk Galewski. So the friendship in the film is not an invented frame, it is the event itself. Despite being set in a building full of dying people, the film is not heavy. Kaczkowski's humour sets the tone and the sentiment is held back for the final section. Dawid Ogrodnik plays the priest and the physical transformation is considerable. It became the most watched domestic film of the year in Poland, selling eight hundred thousand tickets. It runs 120 minutes. Good for: true stories, Polish cinema, and stories about friendship. Less good for: death and cancer are the central subject and the hospice scenes are hard.