The Photographer

Polish and Russian relations have been burdened by centuries of mutual rivalry, which, in the modern era, underwent a fundamental shift in the balance of power in Eastern Europe, greatly favoring the tsarist empire and resulting in the long-term loss of Polish independence and the tormenting experience of Poles with a repressive, backward, and poorly governed state. It is even more surprising that the film is set in present-day Russia and that the overwhelming majority of dialogues are in Russian. It doesn't make sense to approach The Photographer as a typical crime story about an elusive phantom leaving behind ruined human lives. It is much more a mysterious story through which the authors return to the recent past and shed light on the essence of the functioning of the Soviet system and its impact on society as a whole. Don't be discouraged by the absurd elements or confusing genre categorization. This is a strong and originally shot film about an individual who initially wanted to perfectly conform to the system, only to subsequently rebeliously defy it in a peculiar and cruel way. As an added bonus, we also get the interesting and unconventional Taťjana Arntgolc. She is a discovery for me, and I hope to have the opportunity to admire her acting in a decent blockbuster sometime. Overall impression: 80%. (18.04.2018)

At the start, I didn’t really get why the Polish would shoot a movie with Russian actors and in a Russian environment. But then the story steered towards Poland and everything started to make sense. If you’re expecting a movie about a mass murderer the likes of Se7en, don’t. This is a regular European masochism in an absolutely realistic form. And since the Polish are good at a whole range of genres nowadays, they couldn’t have screwed this up. I’m only denying them one star for the momentary abstruseness of the story that they, however, managed to clear up later. (05.04.2018)