The Altar Boys

Piotr Domalewski's 2025 Polish film follows a group of teenage altar boys in a provincial town. The boys see the injustice around them: poverty, neglect, the indifference of adults and of the Church. Working from their own reading of the Bible, they decide to establish the moral order of the neighbourhood themselves, and the decision quickly gets away from them. The film stands between comedy and drama, with the gulf between the boys' good intentions and the harshness of what they undertake driving the story. Domalewski has dealt with family and authority in the Polish provinces before; here he takes aim at institutional religion directly without mocking his characters' faith. The young cast holds a natural tone. Who it's for: viewers who like Polish cinema and hard drama about adolescence. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not watch criticism of the church as an institution; the film makes it central.