At the turn of the 1980s and 90s, a time of national transition in Poland, the central character, Franz is a former Security officer who is now downgraded to being a normal police officer.
The turn of the 1980s and 90s, a time of national transition in Poland. The central character, Franz, has no illusions. An attorney by education and a tough and cynical man by character, he ends his "career" in the Communist UB (Office of Security) with thirty-one censures and eighteen commendations. He is ousted from his position under the political verification process instituted by the government of the Third Republic of Poland and is downgraded to being a normal police officer. During an operation against a gang of car thieves, three of Franz's colleagues are killed. Franz is sure that much more was at stake than a handful of stolen automobiles. He also suspects that only his former colleagues from the Office of Security (effectively the secret police of Communist times) could have acted so brazenly against the police, opening fire on his partners. He decides to take revenge and attempts to do so with the help of Olo, his former colleague from the UB. Olo was outright kicked out of the police under the verification process, and Franz's choice of him as a partner proves a fatal error because Olo has already found a new employer: he is working for the other side. Franz is left completely alone in his struggle when the woman he pairs up with leaves him for Olo, who has grown wealthy in his life of crime. The ensuring struggle between former buddies ends tragically when Franz hunts Olo down and shoots him at point blank range after telling him that he is doing this "in the name of principle." The point of contention all along having been the woman...
"What is 'Pigs' about? 'About a dog's world, about the fact that freedom also engenders filth and stupidity while destroying ideals. Everything has been debased, sullied in mud, thrown into the cesspool,' wrote a reviewer. Such extreme critical reactions were elicited by the film's subject matter and its portrayal of the world as fundamentally castrated of positives and saturated with cynicism, moral dirt and cruelty. A world that is simultaneously hardly abstract, and in fact present in the here and now (i.e. in Poland in 1989), one that is additionally portrayed in an iconoclastic and provocative manner, derisive of all things sacred, be they related to nation or religion. Behind this façade of scoffing and anti-martyrological blasphemies, there was something more - a morality tale, a painful diagnosis of contemporary Poland. Was this 'cinema of immoral anxiety'? Opinions were divided. Only viewers succeeded in 'expressing themselves' clearly, demonstrating their fascination by lining up in front of the box office and rendering 'Pigs' a commercial hit." (www.filmpolski.pl)
"Ideologically, Mr. Pasikowski is as clean as a baby's bottom and as such, in looking at his environment, he has concluded that people are not divided into 'Communists' and 'Catholics,' but into people and people. He goes even further in his naïve thinking, suggesting that all people share the same DNA, which allows them to interbreed independent of the colors they don." (Piotr Szulkin, "Polityka" weekly 9/1992)
- Psy / Pigs. Poland, 1992. Written and directed by: Władysław Pasikowski. Director of photography: Paweł Edelman. Production designer: Andrzej Przedworski. Music by: Michał Lorenc. Editor: Wanda Zeman, Zbigniew Niciński. Producer: Juliusz Machulski. Featuring: Bogusław Linda (Franz Maurer), Marek Kondrat (Olo Zwirski), Cezary Pazura (2nd Lieutenant Waldemar Morawiec, "Nowy" / "Newcomer"), Janusz Gajos (Gross "Siwy" / "Grey", Former Secret Service Major from Lublin), Agnieszka Jaskółka (Angela Wenz), Zbigniew Zapasiewicz (Senator Wencel, Chairman of the Police Verification Committee), Zbigniew Bielski (Kaniewski, Security Service Officer), Tomasz Dedek (Wawro, Security Service Officer), Ryszard Fischbach ("Dziadek" / "Grandpa", Security Service Officer), Marek Frąckowiak (Kazek, Security Service Officer), Tadeusz Szymkow (Jerzyk, Security Service Officer), Jerzy Bończak (Roman Bluszcz, "Chemik" / "Chemist"), Sławomir Orzechowski (Parliamentary Deputy Rutecki, Member of the Police Verification Committee), Ryszard Pietruski (Attorney Jaromil), Tadeusz Huk (Marian "Wielki" / "Grand" Słaby, Amphetamine Producer), Artur Żmijewski (Wolf, Arms Dealer). Produced by: Studio Filmowe (formerly Zespół Filmowy) Zebra, color. Duration: 104 min.
Awards: - 1992: FPFF (Polish Feature Film Festival) in Gdynia - awards for Best Direction, Best Music, Best Editing, Best Actor in a Starring Role for Bogusław Linda and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Agnieszka Jaskółka
- 1994: Action and Adventure Film Festival in Valenciennes - awards for Best Directing and Best Actor in a Starring Role for Boguslaw Linda