The Priestess

Inge-Lise Wagner is a priestess of the Danish Lutheran Church. She was ordained in 1981 into a remote fishing community on the North Sea and almost instant controversy. Despite massive popular support among her parishioners, the establishment - running from the parish council to the government church ministry - turned against her, delving into the tomes of legal history to find a way of evicting her from her living at Hanstholm. The battle lasted seven years. After two trials at a consistory court set up according to precepts dating back to the 16th century a TV newscaster was finally able to announce that -Parish priest Inge-Lise Wagner received a letter today from Minister of the Church Mette Madsen (telling her) that she is fired. Yet as the film reveals, the turbulent priest is actually profoundly conservative - surprising as that may sound about a woman who enjoys entertainment and is a good performer herself; she juggles, walks the tightrope, rides like a devil on horseback and travels round Denmark on a motorbike, even on her way to church; not the sort of behaviour normally associated with someone operating within the official Danish state church, and especially not when she is a woman.
This is the story of a woman who has found other ways to survive - by refusing to compromise and by utilising all her inherent abilities.