User Reviews

Having read some of the reviews in the Polish press and being a fan of war and historical movies, I was quite excited about this production. To my disappointment I found the character portrayals historically distorted, many of the twists in the plot absurd and some scenes unnecessarily grotesque. I found other parts of the film simply boring. The film has been rightly described as "a reflective affair composed mainly of dialogue and pregnant silences, with only very occasional spurts of action," during the Wroclaw film festival.

The narrative follows different twists and turns. The main character, the executioner, acting on previous orders leads his former school friend (an informer) to his death, after spending a night drinking eating and reminiscing. He threatens his former friend's wife (his own former girlfriend) with sexual violence when his initial attempt to coerce his "friend" to leave to be executed fails. His "friend's" final request is then to look after his wife and become her new partner after the execution has taken place. The "friend's" death itself is a bizarre accident. This is later contrasted with the executioner releasing a young woman from his resistance unit who had betrayed his comrades during his absence and is responsible for their deaths. First he tells her a story about a dream in which he makes an analogy to animals who kill the women of his family. He punishes her by forcing her to serve two young German paratroopers toadstool stew cooked with their fellow soldier's cut off head. Difficult to follow, distasteful or just bizarre, this is certainly not the rough justice of the "Inglorious Basterds," or vengeance in "The Pacific." For a film that aims to shown the emotional horrors of war and human frailties it lacks authenticity. In parts it feels like a B horror movie.

Is the director's aim to distort the historical characters and cynically portray their alter egos or unwittingly falsify Polish history? I grew up in London where many of the World War Two soldiers and the AK (Armia Krajowa) Resistance freedom fighters went into exile after the war. They were honest and religious, and their attitude towards women was one of romantic chivalry - the perfect gentlemen. Their ethics were nurtured by the Polish Scouting movement where charity and serving the community were the norm, and they were heavily influenced by Joseph Conrad's literature and his philosophy that "those who act only in self-interest will end up doomed to a tragic demise." The generation that grew up with a romantic notion of Poland's historic fight for freedom, is documented in numerous historical accounts, memoirs and letters written by the former resistance fighters. They firmly believed that they were fighting for a just cause as they were the victims of two totalitarian empires. In contrast, the consistently brutal language, drug taking and brooding sexual aggression of the characters in the film is in line with a group of ex-convicts or Poland's post-war communist security police, the UB. The notion of a penal unit, men well into their 30's and 40's, voluntarily fighting for a lost cause in squalid conditions in this murky forest is simply ridiculous. Most AK resistance fighters were in their early 20's or even late teens, as the older men, who had not been deported or escaped, would usually have large families to look after. Imagine the uproar, if Britain's or any other Allied Western nation's war heroes were caricatured in this manner for the sake of art. Perhaps to achieve greater authenticity, the director and scriptwriter dedicates the film to his father, a former resistance fighter. However, in an interview for the tvn24 news channel he states, "Dad died in 2004. I would probably not have been brave enough to shoot this film while he was alive. Entering into a polemic with the real memories of the people still alive is something that I cannot accept. I have reached a point in my life where I am able to make my own assumptions about certain events. Entering into a discussion with my father I would be forced to provide a picture illustration of the facts that that took place. And this does not interest me in the slightest." If, somehow, this is a depiction of the minority Communist resistance AL People's Army, then the director should state this clearly as again the historical distinction has great significance.

Mainstream Polish critical reviews enthuse about this film, in that it provides a fresh insight into Polish wartime martyrdom and mythology. Post war, Stalinist propaganda in Poland also described the AK Resistance fighters as criminal bands, and the erstwhile security police, UB, persecuted the leaders. Scores of former resistance fighters were sent to Soviet Gulags after the war had ended. Rather than provide a fresh insight, does this film and its national critical reviews herald a popular revival in communist ideology through the medium of art? In line with contemporary Polish fashion dictated by local celebrities and the mass media, patriotism is an embarrassment (or even equivalent to fascism), times are changing, and one needs to chill, lighten up, with the pathos, parochialism and all that baggage, as Poles are now modern Europeans. Fifty-five years of Soviet colonialism and People's Republic social engineering have certainly produced a new historical paradigm.

Perhaps I am taking this too personally, as a modern European of Polish descent, but this movie insults my heritage. I acknowledge the fact that there will always be dark episodes in every country's history. However, I strongly believe that the overwhelming majority of Poland's war heroes, who sacrificed everything for their country, deserve to be recognised as such in contemporary art and history, and must be honoured.

Any positives? Sound-design and cinematography. Some members of the strong Polish cast actually do act well, but their efforts are not sufficient to save a film that instead providing a fresh perspective sends out all the wrong messages to a new generation of Poles.