Based on a true story, Amok is a gripping, twisty-turner crime thriller featuring a decidedly creepy turn from Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, as an arrogant author who could also be a murderer, and a typically intense performance from the brilliant Lukasz Simlat as the troubled cop who is out to catch him.

In 2000 a man was murdered in Wroclaw in Poland. The investigation ran dry but was reignited five years later when a novel Amok by Krystian Bala revealed clues to the murder that could only be known by the killer.

The old cliché about truth being stranger than fiction is usually not true. This is one of the examples where the saying definitely holds. The very idea of a killer being caught due to a novel he wrote containing damning clues against him is pretty incredible stuff. The film operates after the murder and before the conviction, concentrating on the investigation. While the acting performances are good, events depicted are not always entirely dynamically told, which given the unbelievable true story is a bit of a shame. It is still a solid enough film, one which fits in very well with the downbeat and grim nature of much of the impressive spate of north European thrillers from recent years. It is certainly very good to have a Polish variant on this cycle of films. While I would say that this film didn't maximise its material as such, it is still a very fascinating story and one worth knowing about for sure.