Z ODZYSKU (RETRIEVAL)

Poland, 2006, 103 minutes, Colour.
Antoni Pawlicki, Nataliya Dvovina.
Directed by Slawomir Fabicki.

A contemporary Polish slice of life, grim but with some hope for redemption.

Woitik is 19, in casual jobs, in a relationship with Katya, a young woman with a son, from Ukraine. His prospects are clean-up in a pig farm. When he participates in illegal boxing matches, he is offered a security job by a local petty gangster with a surface charming manner but a brutal philosophy especially for the retrieval of money loaned.

It is not hard to guess what happens. The important thing is to watch how Woitik falls lower and lower and wonder whether and how he will experience a change of heart. His love for Katya and getting her residence and work papers? His love for her son whom he treats as his own? His strong-minded grandfather? His fat mate who also gets a job as a thug? When Woitik returns to the pigs, it is a reminder of the parable of the Prodigal Son. As he swims home across the river, the symbolism of washing, cleansing and healing is a final image.

Life in a modern Polish industrial town is not easy. But values still have their place.

1. Polish life at the beginning of the 20th century? The aftermath of communism, the growth of capitalism? Ordinary life, the seemier side of life? Despair and hope?

2. The locations, homes, clubs, boxing matches? Musical score?

3. The sense of realism, hand-held camera, editing?

4. The portrait of Woitik, his relationship with Katia, the child? The strong bonds? His wanting to do something? The matches, the money? The entrepreneur, smooth manner, encouraging Woitik’s secret matches,, the association with gangsters? Woitik caught up in this world? Possibilities of escape?

5. Katia, coming from Ukraine, with her child? Trying to survive, believing in hard work for success? Her work in the club, janitor, the seedy atmosphere? The men and their approaches, the possibilities? Yet her wanting a more simple life?

6. The businessmen, smooth manner, encouraging Woitik, his hard approach to life? The boxing, gangster world, giving Woitik the security job, the demands on him?

7. The film immersing the audience in this Polish world, identifying with the characters and their struggles, their hopes – and possibilities for a better life?