Strawman tells the story of Bronek, an agent of the secret police in Communist Poland. Bronek is involved in a long-term surveillance operation targeted at Bishop Karol Wojtyła. Thanks to its focus on Bronek as the protagonist, the film shows known facts in a unique manner (the struggle for the construction of a church in Nowa Huta in Cracow, surveillance of church circles by the secret police). Strawman is not a bio-pic about the future pope, Karol Wojtyła is here only as a catalyst for action. Motivated by his desire for money and promotion, Bronek repeatedly crosses moral boundaries, and becomes obsessed with his invigilation of Wojtyła. The film skillfully uses generic tropes of an espionage thriller to tell the story of a man, who gets drawn deeper and deeper into the isolated, immoral world of the secret service and gradually succumbs to loneliness, evil and crime.