Agnieszka Holland, the filmmaker behind “Europa Europa” and “The Secret Garden,” might be a director you keep at your cinephile fingerprints, but she’s been quietly helming episodes of your favorite TV shows for years. “The Wire,” “The Killing,” “Treme,” and “House Of Cards” have all benefitted from from her talents, but now Holland’s headed to the Berlin Film Festival with her first feature in six years.
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Starring Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Miroslav Krobot, Jakub Gierszał, Patrycja Volny, and Borys Szyc, “Spoor” follows a retired woman who finds herself falling into the middle of a murder mystery. Here’s the official synopsis:
Retired civil engineer Duszejko lives a secluded life in a mountain village close to the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. She is charismatic and eccentric, a passionate astrologer and a strict vegetarian. One day her beloved dogs disappear. On a snowy winter’s night shortly afterwards she discovers the dead body of her neighbour and, next to it, deer tracks. More men die in a similarly mysterious way. All of them were pillars of the village community, and all were passionate hunters. Were these men killed by wild animals? Or has someone been provoked to pursue a bloody vendetta? At some point Duszejko herself comes under suspicion…
After her foray into the realm of serialised drama, Agnieszka Holland returns to the big screen with a subversive thriller. Pokot is set in a landscape of changing seasons; however, the wild beauty of the countryside cannot hide the corrupt nature, cruelty and stupidity of the people who live there. Deeply rooted in the reality of rural Poland, the film is as anarchic as its heroine, and boldly mixes genres – from humorous detective story to exciting eco-thriller to feminist fairy-tale.
Look for our verdict from Berlin, and hopefully this one will nab a U.S. release down the line. [Cine Maldito]
Browse through all our coverage of the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival by clicking here.
