Spoor/ POKOT (Agnicszka Holland, 2017) Poland/Sweden/Germany/Czech Republic/Slovokia

Reviewed by Bryan Austin Gillison. Viewed at the AFI Film Festival 2016.

“The crime was legal, so everyone accepts it”

Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik co-directed this beautiful crime drama with a dark subject matter. Spoor (Pokot in Polish) was adapted from a novel written by Olga Tokarczuk.

There could not be a more powerfully entertaining and important film for this current time in my opinion. With violence and toxic masculinity taking down the very institutions we rely on, this film draws parallels between murder/hunting, nazi dehumanization techniques, and religion’s role in obliterating our responsibility to this planet and our neighboring inhabitants. It does this with wit, suspense, originality, and beauty. This film does not rely on glitz or glamour, you will find no sexy actors or actresses. There will be no opulent mansions, nor any high speed chases. That’s what makes it so much more powerful than the glossy nonsense we have become accustomed to in the age of CGI reboots.

The use of ominous classical music paired with sweeping scenic pan shots lays the ground work of a film that highlights themes of isolation and human nature at its least observed. The hunting town our story is set in does a fantastic job of illustrating the totalitarianism that pervades our eating habits and religious practices when you consider the treatment of non human individuals. The colors are lush and warm and nature populates the screen with all of its splendor.  In fact, this film could be easily edited down into a striking national geographic survey of the polish mountainous region.

On the lighter side the film does have a bit of dry comedy here and there surrounding the differences between humans and animals. The pacing of the film has a good rhythm and variety between fast paced action and drawn out nature observation.

I do wish that the ending had been more shocking. I won’t tell you here but I imagine most will guess with the very ham fisted foreshadowing. This however did not take away from the overall impact of the film.