Notes

* AffablyEvil: What humanises Lisowski's evilness is the fact he always, in each and every case, throws in simple acts of kindness, regardless of what sort of shady things he's pulling.
* TheAlcoholic: Trybus. It's an OpenSecret for everyone in his parish.
* AlcoholicParent: First time we see them, Rysiek's are both too drunk to even wake up when priest Kukuła comes with a visit.
* AbusiveParents: Rysiek is beaten when they are sober enough to hit him. Openly neglected and completely forgotten when they're hammered. The boy is forced to provide for himself on regular basis and is so used to the level of abuse he's simply resigned to his fate.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Priest Lisowski dreams about a cushy job in Vatican. Nothing will stop or even slow him down. ''Nothing''.
* TheAtoner: The interpretation of Lisowski's good actions and manipulations - for all his corruption and machinations, he forces a lot of people, including TheMafiya preparing to wax him, to perform good deeds in the process.
* TheBadGuyWins:
** Mordowicz gets his sanctuary started and [[spoiler: all pedo accusations within his Curia are dropped]].
** [[spoiler: Thanks to extensive manipulation, Lisowski kills the investigation against pedophilia, prevents anything even resembling internal reform and gets a cozy spot in Vatican, just as he wanted]].
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Both priest Lisowski and arcbishop Mordowicz. While Lisowski is just a lowly bureaucrat staying in shadow, the bishop manages to also [[VillainWithGoodPublicity maintain an image of a good shephard on top if it all]].
* ChainOfDeals: Lisowski performs entire string of exchanges and shady business, using each of his potential enemies against each other and also [[ThrowTheDogABone throwing few bones to the dog]] in the process.
* CharacterDevelopment: Trybus goes from depressive alcoholic and promiscious priest into dedicated partner and caring person, but it costs him an arm and a leg to get there.
* CorruptChurch: Obviously, since it was the entire point of making the movie.
* CorruptPolitician: The archbishop dealing with few [=MPs=] and the politicians entering various deals with the Curia, with mutual exchange of bribes and favours.
* CunningLinguist: Lisowski is fluent in ''at least'' English, German and Italian.
* DevilInPlainSight: Arcbishop Mordowicz, who is regarded by lay people as just some boring arcbishop.
* DirtyCop: Heavily downplayed, but priest Kukuła still manages to just call the commissioner to get scot free from the trouble caused by drunk Lisowski and Trybus
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Lisowski wins. Mordowicz and rest of the Curia quell all the newspaper investigations and media craze. All possibility of even tiniest of reforms is prevented. Kukuła, the only outright good of the trio of friends, kills himself by self-immolation. And Trybus ultimately leaves clergy, but at least he is on a path of moral recovery and sorting his life out]].
* DrunkDriver: The opening. Eventually, Trybus is left convinced he killed a man during his stunt in the rain.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Trybus goes through a lot and ultimately [[spoiler: quits clergy, but he is trying to form a family with a woman he loves and be a good father for their incoming baby]]. Most importantly, he is more happy in the end of the story than at the start of it.
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: [[spoiler: Lisowski is truly depraved, power-hungry self-centered individual, who actively uses his image of aging, polite and soft-spoken priest for his advantage]].
* FauxAffablyEvil: In-universe, Mordowicz has such publicity. Many people are aware of his evil antics, but he gets scot-free most of the time
* FreezeFrameBonus: The two nuns embracing their hands in the crowd in the end.
* FriendToAllChildren:
** Kukuła is training football team in Elementry and shows genuine care for mistreated Rysiek. With his sudden charge of being pedophile, everyone gets convinced he did all of this to simply get closer to young kids.
** Lisowski always makes sure to help orphans and needy children in general, as part of his FreudianExcuse [[spoiler: of being an orphan. The fact he might be a pedo himself puts it again in different light]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Lisowski was rised in OrphanageOfFear run by NunTooHoly; by the end of the story, he joins a congregation in Vatican and plays everyone to do his whims, while remaining squeeky clean himself.
* GlamorousSingleMother: Anna Zakrzewska, the reporter. Further contrasted with Hanka, who barely has funds and means to keep her daughter fed, not to mention keeping herself in style.
* GoodShepherd: Priest Kukuła, for all his simple failings, is still a dedicated priest trying to help everyone in his parish.
* GoodTimesMontage: Used during the ending. [[spoiler: And inverted, since the entire Curia is celebrating their ''successful squash of journalistic investigation'' and having time of their life because of it. Directly cut to the faces of victims of pedo priests from the documentry film they've managed to suppress from being ever published]].
* GullibleLemmings: The lay people in general, regardless of who is manipulating them at any given moment.
* IntrepidReporter: Anna Zakrzewska, the reporter about to reveal the corruption scandal against Lisowski. She still gives him time to express his version of event, but openly admits the text will be published in two days, with or without the priest's commentary.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Lisowski always adds small redemptive acts to all his depravity. [[spoiler: [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk And then you learn he's most likely a pedophile]]]].
* LittlestCancerPatient: Lisowski visits children from oncological ward and ends up having a very hard time talking with a boy too young to even speak properly, but already dying of cancer. All he is capable of is giving the old and tired talk how God wanting certain people sooner in His kingdom, while being clearly uncomfortable with saying it.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Zosia, the daughter of Hanka, was sired by an unknown man.
* ManipulativeBastard: Lisowski's literal job in the Curia is to manipulate press and contractors working on the sanctuary.
* MeaningfulName:
** Lisowski, derived from lis - [[CunningLikeAFox a fox]]
** Somewhat LostInTranslation, but Mordowicz is clearly derived from morda - mug, but also muzzle. Morda itself is used to describe someone you can make shady deals with, a sort of partner-in-crime.
* TheMobBossIsScarier: Lisowski goes through hell and high water to make sure the tender for heating for the sanctuary goes to a shady dude rather than the ''other'' shady types. Solely because his life is in direct danger if he won't deliver.
* NeverTrustATrailer: This is ''not'' a comedy poking fun out of layabout priests. And even if there is some humour into it, [[BlackComedy it's the blackest possible]].
* NobleDemon: Lisowski, who always tries to do at least some good when doing outright evil things. [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted, as he's revealed as a self-serving pedo]].
* NunTooHoly: The head of the OrphanageOfFear, sister Jukunda, who run the place worse than a hardcore prison.
* NunsAreSpooky: Sister Jukunda definitely is, even when she's an old, frail woman.
* PaedoHunt: To almost literal degree, where Kukuła ends up chased like a wild animal and barely avoids brutal beat-up. [[spoiler: And he is ''innocent'']].
* PedophilePriest: Big part of the movie is how the Church hierarchy is doing their very best to not do anything about it.
* RedHerring: [[spoiler: Trybus didn't kill anyone with his DrunkDriver moment - it was a stray dog he hit. He still burdens under the guilt anyway]].
* RetiredMonster: Priest Stanisław, [[spoiler: who abused young Kukuła]], is living a calm life in a facility for retired priests, free of any charges.
* TheReveal: Quite a few
** Kukuła was abused by his parson as a kid. [[spoiler: And he's not a pedo himself]].
** Lisowski was rised in an orphanage run by nuns and is still traumatised by it, some 50 years later.
* RuleOfSymbolism: The crowd form a triangle, resembling the sing of divine providence in the final shot.
* SignatureStyle: Heavy-heating, controversial movie with an extremely bitter pill in form of the ending and aesop, combined with quick editing techniques and droning music - classic Wojtek Smarzowski. And just like his other works, it's not what it initially appears to be.
* SinisterMinister: Arcbishop Mordowicz and priest Lisowski
* TorchesAndPitchforks: The lynching mob after Kukuła ends up carrying wooden railings to beat him, probably with lethal intent.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Ho boy... Where to even start? It could be said the entire titular clergy is this.
* WhosLaughingNow: Lisowski beating Mordowicz in their game of politics.

YMMV
* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: Since the sole trailer of the movie caused an extremely strong reaction from conservative wing of the Catholic Church hierarchy in Poland ''and'' even stronger right-wing political reaction, it fuelled attendance to the movie, as everyone wanted to know what's the fuss about. To the point the movie had the best opening weekend in past 40 years and many cinemas ended up with all tickets sold few days in advance. The unintended, free marketing the movie had during just three weeks prior its premiere is estimated at 65 million złotych, against the production budget of just 10 million.
* OvershadowedByControversy: As stated above, the already heavy-hitting movie only managed to gain extra momentum when Church representatives started a fierce campaign against it, soon joined by politicians ''and'' far-right groups. Minor acts of vandalism against posters and withdrewal of certain cinemas from distributing the movie followed even before the premiere, ''further fuelling interest in the movie''.

Trivia
* CaliforniaDoubling: Large sections of the film were filmed in Czech Republic.
* PlayingAgainstType: Jacek Braciak is usually cast as push-overs or ExtremeDoormat characters and rarely as part of the main cast. His priest Lisowski is a cunning, extremely ambitious political animal keeping everyone in check and using people as his pawns for minor favours. On meta-level, the character still ''looks'' lika a harmless wimp, so nobody takes him serious, until they try to double-cross him.
* SleeperHit: Downplayed. While it was obvious from the start the film would attract interest with ease due to the subject and director, nobody was expecting breaking box-office records and attendance so high tickets had to be booked few days in advance.
* WorkingTitle: "3"