Pokot (2017) Reviews

• An impassioned plea to stop the officially sanctioned murder of wild life.

  alexdeleonfilm2017-02-23

  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.

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• Crime thriller hidden under struggle against needlessly hunting animals. Berlinale 2017 jury awarded it deservedly with Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize

  JvH482017-03-09

  Seen at the Berlinale 2017. Though it was marked "out of competition" for the Golden Bear, it deservedly got the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize anyway. Lead protagonist Janina is retired but still teaches English at a local school. Her pupils admire her, contrary to the school board who is less happy. She is a convinced vegetarian and frowns on hunting, which is the favorite sport of nearly all local villagers. Apart from her continuous struggle against needless hunting, there are also crime thriller elements involved when people are found dead from time to time without any tracks or other useful clues to help the police. The movie is structured in chapters following the hunting calendar, something we see Janina stealing from the police office. She has frequent contacts there to file complaints over violations of same calendar. It is useless as the police does nothing about it, understandable with high placed policemen who are heavily involved in hunting themselves. Janina is persistent in her struggle for animal welfare, but her complaints are ignored. Her evenso persistent inclination to involve astrology in everything, hampers her believability and is often an excuse to send her away. And being an independent and retired woman (some think: useless) does not help either. This movie is apparently about corruption, a popular theme in movies in former communist countries. It is a broader theme than only lust for money or a high position. Self-serving bureaucrats or bending rules for egoistic reasons, are also forms of corruption, maybe weaker variants but still. Clearly, the authorities (mainly the police) does not care much about enforcing rules around hunting, being heavily involved in hunting themselves, just like everyone in the elite. This includes the priest, who explains in one of his sermons how useful hunting actually is, actually a divine right given to humans. But Janina is not guiltless herself either, when she organizes a class "excursion" (that is what she calls it when a school administrator has comments) to find her missing dogs. It took place in the dark and within a forest, that is why her superiors are not amused. It may be a weaker form of corruption, I admit it, but still deviating from the rules and putting children unnecessarily at risk to serve her own private interests. Director Agnieszka Holland won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for "opening new perspectives", awarded by the Berlinale 2017 International Jury. I'm at a loss what those "new perspectives" can be, maybe the fact that we are watching a whodunit thriller without noticing it along the way, that is until the nasty truth hits us near the finale. However, don't construe my being lost that I'm against this reward. The compelling story line throughout a bit over 2 hours, as well as how the lead performer carries the story, deserve a reward, whatever its earmark.

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• Rare beauty with a hoodie in the winds

  uthusantuhan2017-10-28

  East Europe's quality display in all of its glory. Detail view of the nature is superbly put together. Directors from this part of the world have class and taste. Storyline tempo was too jerky switching from the opening to the conclusions. The events of revelations seemed to lost its tempo. And the detail of character within is blurred from one unto another. Like a car chase with the same type of car with the same type of color. You cannot grasp who is chasing who... But overall this movie have landed an arrow in my heart like a cupid of destiny. Bravo

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• Once upon a time...

  pacolopezpersonal2017-09-19

  "Once upon a time, far away from here, there was a cute Old lady, very very fond of animals...." Spoor is a cruel tale of our days in which there is no lack of Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf (both in disguise) and many hunters; but the originality is that the role of all of them is in reverse. We have such a beautiful ending that is not real. In this story we are shown the utmost consequences of two extremes radically opposed; we are shown on the one hand the excessive love for hunting and abuse of animals and on the other hand what can be the most extreme extent in the defense of animals, namely: some men kill animals and those who are against all that and oppose, can even kill men. Spoor is a Tale for people of today and culturally affecting many countries traditions, and above all with many aspects to think seriously about.

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• Follow this spoor into your local theatre

  Horst_In_Translation2018-01-12

  "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.

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