In recounting the tragic death of Grzegorz Przemyk, Jan P. Matuszyński portrays the ruthlessness with which the communist machine defended itself against the truth. 'Leave No Traces' is a powerful and superbly made film, but it also leaves you unsatisfied.
After the success of his debut The Last Family, Jan P. Matuszyński said in interviews that we would have to wait for his next film. In the meantime, he made the TV series Illegals and the spectacular The King, all whilst working on his second feature film – Leave No Traves, an adaptation of Cezary Łazarewicz’s shocking reportage. The care with which he prepared his next picture is visible on the cinema screen. Leave No Traces, the Polish candidate for an Oscar, is a film made with an iron will and awareness of film technique. It’s been a long time since Polish cinema produced a picture with such stage design panache, a picture with a budget allowing for staging decent large scenes and filmed with such visual sophistication.
It is spring 1983. Martial law has already been suspended and in the secret headquarters of Solidarity, the opposition activists can look to the future with hope. Jurek Popiel (Tomasz Ziętek) is one of them. He recently left his hometown to seek adventure in the larger world. When he and a friend are stopped by the militia in Warsaw’s Old Town, he turns from an inconspicuous hooligan into the regime’s greatest enemy. He is the only witness to the fatal beating committed by the police on young Grzegorz Przemyk, an opposition activist and son of a well-known underground activist. When the communist services decide to cover up the case, Jurek becomes a thorn in their flesh and all the services of the regime are harnessed to discredit and destroy him and, if necessary, make him disappear without a trace.
There would have been no film version of Leave No Traces if not for Cezary Łazarewicz’s reportage of the same title. Published in 2016, the book was quickly (and deservedly) recognised as one of the masterpieces of new Polish reportage. In it, Łazarewicz recreated the world from three decades ago, carefully analysing the mechanisms governing politics of the era and pointing out the cruelty and omnipotence of the communist authorities. His Leave No Traces shocked – rendering the reader powerless in the face of the recounted drama and leaving him emotionally trapped.
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Still from the film 'Leave No Traces' directed by Jan P. Matuszyński, 2021, photo: Łukasz Bak/Kino Świat
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Translating this literature to the screen would seem almost impossible. And yet Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk, the screenwriter of Matuszyński’s film, managed the task well and presented the film’s story from several perspectives. The film world in Leave No Traces is seen not only through the eyes of Jurek Popiel, but also from the point of view of the other participants in the drama – General Czesław Kiszczak (Robert Więckiewicz), the paramedic (Antoni Pawlak) framed by the authorities for Przemyk’s murder, Barbara Sadowska (Sandra Korzeniak) and the protagonist’s parents (Agnieszka Grochowska and Jacek Braciak).
The multiple perspectives make Matuszyński’s film a broad and credible panorama of political and social events, but they also have negative consequences. This is because it makes the nearly three-hour-long film lose its clarity time and again, and the successive nuances of the story distract from the poignant main threads. So instead of being enthralled by the story of a young man cornered by the system, we move away from him, again and again, to see the world from a broader perspective. Yes, the picture becomes more complete, but it also becomes less emotional.
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Still from the film 'Leave No Traces' directed by Jan P. Matuszyński, 2021, photo: Łukasz Bak/Kino Świat
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In recounting the events surrounding Grzegorz Przemyk’s death, Matuszyński uses a distinctive line. There aren’t many shades of grey, but clearly distinguishable black and white. We see noble oppositionists and corrupt officials, rebels fighting for truth and opportunists ready to sacrifice everything for personal gain. This Manichean division does not help in building intriguing portraits. It is also a pity that the character of the main protagonist has been significantly smoothed out in the film version. From the pages of Łazarewicz’s reportage emerged a portrait of a young hooligan, entangled in numerous affairs and leading a controversial lifestyle. In the film, Jurek Popiel is slightly censored – yes, we learn about his affair with Barbara Sadowska, Grzegorz Przemyk’s mother, but the information about the boy’s lavish life is provided only by the system’s officers.
Leave No Traces is a masterfully created film and living proof that Polish cinematography has excellent artists and craftsmen in its ranks. Paweł Jarzębski’s production design and Małgorzata Zacharska’s costumes are superb, whilst Kacper Fertacz’s cinematography – skilfully controlling the film’s colours, temperatures and textures – is undoubtedly world-class. Even though there are some true discoveries in the cast (such as the excellent Andrzej Nejman, unjustly forgotten by Polish cinema) and some very good performances (Ziętek, Braciak), it is perhaps the acting that is the biggest flaw in Matuszyński’s film. It is hard to understand why such a precisely told and directed film contains such over-the-top roles as those of Robert Więckiewicz and – especially – Aleksandra Konieczna, who as a communist prosecutor in the film’s finale tries to steal the show and turn Matuszyński’s film into an unintentional farce.
- Leave No Traces. Directed by: Jan P. Matuszyński. Screenplay: Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk, based on a reportage by Cezary Łazarewicz. Cinematography: Kacper Fertacz. Starring: Tomasz Ziętek, Jacek Braciak, Sandra Korzeniak, Robert Więckiewicz, Tomasz Kot, Aleksandra Konieczna. Polish premiere: September 24, 2021.
