Our God's Brother

In the Krakow staging of Karol Wojtyła’s drama “Brother of Our God,” the actors reveal the motivations of characters connected to Adam Chmielowski, an insurgent and talented painter. During his stay in Munich, Chmielowski (Scott Wilson) grows close to Helena Modrzejewska (Grażyna Szapołowska) and Maksymilian Gierymski (Christoph Waltz), with whom he engages in conversations about the spiritual mission of the artist. His work, deeply intertwined with religious reflection, merges with an increasing concern for the poor—an outlook not lost on a revolutionary (Wojciech Pszoniak) who tries to steer him toward political struggle. However, Adam chooses a different path: he begs for the poor, lives in a shelter, and undergoes a spiritual breakthrough by seeing Christ in the homeless and contemplating the image of Ecce Homo. As Brother Albert, he organizes a community devoted to serving those in need and believes that religious life grants him “greater freedom” than the kind sought by revolutionaries.