"Pokot" or "Spoor" (that occasionally reminded me of Haneke's Oscar-nominated White Ribbon) is a Polish 2017 movie that runs for over 2 hours, so a pretty long watch, and it is the most recent release by co-director and co-writer Agnieszka Holland as she is back to her home now and away from Hollywood at least for a little while. This was chosen as Poland's Oscar submission, but failed to get in. Unless you are Polish yourself or have a deep interest in the country's film industry, you probably won't recognize any of the actors in here. This is the story of a relatively old woman played by Agnieszka Mandat living in rural Poland and how she deals with her neighbors' passion for hunting. Even the local priest cannot comfort her and instead turns into what you could call her biggest enemy as his passion for living creatures does not include animals at all. I think it was a good film as a whole that had many solid moments. There were moments when you could say it was over the top like the protagonist's nickname for the young woman, but these are somewhat justified through the lady's disorder too. She certainly isn't a healthy woman by any means and it may be a result too from her years of loneliness, without humans at least, not without animals. And one of the film's biggest strengths comes from your very personal decision how much you identify with her and with what she says and does. This does not just include her love for animals and how she puts them above humans, but also with some of her other takes like astrology for example and I must admit that I really found it difficult to follow her to that regard, just because the subject does so little for me and I never had an interest in it.

Let me say that this is a very controversial film that will evoke all kinds of emotions in audiences. This also refers to my viewing. We had a guy who quickly thought she was an insane lunatic, but you could feel that many also felt and cared for the woman. And right when you find out that it was probably her who commited all these murders, you find out about her motivations which again makes it difficult to really hate her for what she did. It's not just about her hate against hunting, but it is about the most personal loss she could have suffered. I must say I am a bit surprised these 4 people on her side never really asked themselves if they should really stay with her, but I guess it is also somewhat justified by the motivations for her actions. In any case, this was a very bleak and atmospheric film which may be Holland's biggest strength to deliver with that approach. It is also based on a novel, but I cannot say a lot about parallels and differences as I have not read this one. The last shot with her becoming one with nature was pretty good too, even if I must say that I expected another ending, namely either her being killed by who she loves, i.e. a wild animal, or by who she hates, i.e. the hunters who'd definitely have taken the chance to shoot a human justified by her being a killer and they probably would not have to be worried about legal punishment judging from what we have seen about the Polish police in there. I also liked that the one female cop is really against her too and says so explicitly in her presence that she thinks she is sompletely whacked. There may be emancipation factors in this film, maybe a bit of feminism too, buit it's far from at the very core of it, even if I generally would say, and attendance during my viewing confirmed this, that this was a film that is maybe more interesting for females. But still males like myself can enjoy it too. I think it was a pretty good character study and the more I think about it the more I like it now. Holland as well as her cast and crew deliver again. This deserves to be seen on a big screen and I give it a comfortable thumbs-up. Go check it out.

Agnieszka Holland is one of the most important directors of the impressive Polish film school, and the one who managed to build best an international career, of course, except for Roman Polanski. Most of her activity over the last two decades took place on the television studios where Agnieszka Holland has created fine original mini-series or directed episodes of successful series. Once a few years the director returns to her native Poland to make a feature film - always interesting, always approaching painfull themes from the present or the troubled history of Poland of the last century. 'Spoor' ('Potok' in Polish) is a film solidly anchored in reality, the adaptation of a novel by the recent Nobel laureate for literature, Olga Tokarczuk, who co-authored the script along with the director. I haven't read (yet) the book, but from what I read about the movie, it's a faithful, maybe even too faithful adaptation. The film (maybe also the book) can be interpreted on several levels - political parable, eco-thriller, horror. Almost all fans of these genres will have their reasons for satisfaction as well as for objections.

The setting of the story is suited to a police mystery, maybe even a mini-series of the genre. We are in a mountainous area of Poland, with the symptoms and characters known to those who have lived in the last 30 years in the Eastern Europe that came out of communism: local mob, corrupt policemen, disoriented people trying to adapt to the changes. The main recreation of men is hunting. Most people seem to be in conflict with nature, the hunters decimate with cruelty and sometimes out of the law (regardless of hunting seasons) the animal world. Those who take an attitude in defending nature represent a marginalized minority. Strange things start happening, including violent deaths. Who is the murderer? Is it possible that the animal kingdom is trying to retaliate, maybe even to take revenge?

The theme is also addressed in other films, the first one that reminds me is the excellent French series 'Les Revenants' ('The Returned'). Olga Tokarczuk and Agnieszka Holland, however, give to their story a political dimension. The mountain town and its surroundings are a micro-cosmos of a severely fractured society and of a political system that does not pay too much attention to the rights and opinions of minorities, and less they care about the environment. The majority of the inhabitants are non-educated, indifferent, sometimes violent and corrupt. The ones belonging to the opposing minority are alienated, intimidated, sometimes adept of esoteric hobbies and of New Agee philosophies. The main heroes of the film belong to the latter category, but of all, only Professor Duszejko is well-defined and excellently played by actress Agnieszka Mandat. The rest of the characters are more like sketches of portraits, without enough screen time to develop beyond stereotypes and to deepen the motivations of their actions and attitudes. This is my main cinematic objection. What is sufficient in a television series does not always satisfy in a feature film. 'Spoor' has an interesting theme that urges reflection and debate, but the execution, this time, is below what I expected from a film by Agnieszka Holland. The 'horror' and eco-thriller threads are a little more convincing, and the expressive and depressing image helps, though the film director seems not to have wanted to push too far in this direction. The end clarifies much of what happened before, but opens up another dilemma, a moral one, that will accompany the movie's viewers even after the screening ends.

SPOOR (Pokot) was a Competition film at the2017 Berlin film festival. My festival day started with a trip to West Berlin to see this Polish competition entry at the lavish ZOO Palace theater, the most luxurious movie house on Earth at this moment. Agnieszka Holland's SPOOR, (Polish, Czech, Slovak co prod) takes place in a village in Southern Poland near the Czech border. It was (for a change) a very good competition film after a string of losers, with an unusually strong performance by Agnieszka Mandat (64) as Duszejko, the older woman who lives alone with her beloved two dogs, Whitey and Leila. When they disappear mysteriously she sets out on a crusade to stop the murder of animals in this wildlife rich region. The heavy in the film is the local priest..During a church sermon where he is basically defending the right to kill animals on religious grounds she gets up and berates the assembled congregation with the words "How can you listen to this bullshit!" and storms out. A film that Brigitte Bardot will love as will all animal lovers everywhere. Agnieszka Mandat could be a strong contender for an actress Bär in a Berlin competition slate rich with strong feminine roles. Another strong entry in polish director Agnieszka Holland's extremely varied filmography. Ms. Holland, now 68, began her career in Poland as an assistant to Andrzej Wajda then left Poland to flee Communusm and made many landmark in English with top international stars. Holland is arguably the outstanding woman director active in the world today.