A new film exposing the ills of the Catholic Church has proved a surprise hit in Poland and become a target of the Right-wing government.

Kler (“Clergy”) has drawn 3 million viewers in just two weeks, becoming one of the country’s biggest box office successes.

The film has been praised for its handling of clerical child abuse, a major taboo in the deeply Catholic country.

But several cinemas have reportedly come under pressure to stop showing the film from those close to the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), who have attacked the film as “contemptuous and hateful to Polish identity”, and compared it to Nazi propaganda.

In Ostroleka, southeast Poland, the PiS president reportedly stepped in to stop the municipal cultural centre showing the film.