Spoor (film)

Spoor (Polish: Pokot) is a 2017 Polish crime film directed by Agnieszka Holland, adapted from the novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk.[4][5] It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.[6][4] At Berlin, the film won the Alfred Bauer Prize (Silver Bear).[7] It was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[8]

Spoor
Film poster
Directed byAgnieszka Holland
Produced byJanusz Wachala
Krzysztof Zanussi
Written byOlga Tokarczuk
Agnieszka Holland
Based onDrive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
StarringJakub Gierszał
Music byAntoni Lazarkiewicz
CinematographyJolanta Dylewska
Rafal Paradowski
Edited byPavel Hrdlicka
Release date
  • 12 February 2017 (2017-02-12) (Berlin)
  • 24 February 2017 (2017-02-24) (Poland)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryPoland
Czech Republic
Germany[1]
LanguagePolish
Box office$1 million[2][3]

Plot

The film is set in a remote mountainous region of the Kłodzko Valley in south-western Poland, where an eccentric elderly woman, Janina Duszejko lives with her two dogs. Her dogs disappear one day while she is giving a local woman, Dobra Nowina, a ride to the store. She confronts her neighbour who she calls "Big Foot" who is also a local hunter. One night, she is awakened by another neighbour, Swierszcynski ("Matoga") who informs her that Big Foot is dead. They attend his place and end up moving the body from the floor to the bed. Duszejko is questioned by the local police chief and she makes her complaints about her missing dogs. The police dismiss her complaints. After meeting with Duszejko the police chief meets with Jaroslav Wnetzak a local businessman who gives the chief an ultimatum about the money the chief owes. Duszejko complains to the local priest about her dogs but she is chastised for being blasphemous to treat animals like humans. Duszejko is disturbed by the local hunting activity and the killing of animals in area. Duszejko attempts to interrupt a local hunt but is stopped and humiliated by Wnetzak.

In the winter time, she and Dyzio, an IT person hired by the police, see the police chief's abandoned vehicle at night. They discover the chief's body nearby. He is dead with a blow to the head and there are animal tracks near the body. She is questioned by the prosecutor, who is Swierszcynski' son, about the body. She talks about the tracks she found and her theory of astrology. The prosecutor dismisses her theories. Duszejko befriends Dyzio and Nowina who now works for Wnetzak - both at the local store and a brothel Wnetzak runs. Dyzio is thankful to Duszejko for keeping his epilepsy a secret. Nowina has a younger brother who is being abused by their father. Nowina has attempted to gain custody of her brother but learns that Wnetzak has reported her as unfit twice. Duszejko offers to help with getting custody of Nowina's brother. Later Duszejko discover the body of a young boar and attempts to report an off-season killing of the boar. She is laughed off by the police.

In the summer, Duszejko meets Czech entomologist Boros Schneider in the forest. He has discovered Wnetzak's body and reports it to the police. The body has been in the forest for months. Duszejko and Boros begin a romantic relationship and Boros explains to her about pheromones that attract certain beetles. Duszejko is questioned by the prosecutor about Wnetzak's death. She proffers a theory that the victims were killed by animals since they were all hunters. Nowina is initially arrested for Wnetzak's death because of threats she made against him. In the summer Duszejko goes to a costumed ball attended by all the locals. She sees the drunken mayor Wolski abusing his wife, telling her to wait in the car while he continues his partying. Duszejko comforts the wife and tells her to go home and that she will look after Wolski and make sure he gets home.

The next day police show up at her place. They place her under arrest for Wolski's death because she was the last one to see the mayor alive. She said that she went to check on the mayor that evening but nobody knew where he was. She said she assumed someone else took him home. She then explains her theory of astrology to the police who get flustered at her and release her. She attends a church service and is very upset by the priest's sermon which gives thanks to the hunters. She gets hysterical and is removed from the church. While outside the church she sees a magpie carrying an object to the church tower (earlier she had said magpies start fires by carrying lighted cigarette butts to their nests).

Duszejko then has a flashback about the death of the police chief. She was the one who killed the police chief by striking him on the head when she accidentally came upon him while skiing. She then makes animal tracks around the body. She rushes home and attempts to flee but her vehicle would not start. There is another flashback where she lures Wnetzak to the forest using a ruse about money she had found. She strikes him in the head until he dies. She then goes to Wnetzak's fox farm and release all the animals.

Dyzio, who is with Nowina, recalls that the mayor's body was covered with beetles and that Duszejko would carry pheromones that attracted the beetles. Dyzio then reasons that Duszejko was responsible for all the deaths. Dyzio then learns the church is on fire and the priest is dead. Dyzio and Nowina decide to go to see Magota for what to do. They find Magota sitting with Duszejko at her kitchen table. They hand Nowina a photo which shows all the local hunters displaying the spoils of a hunt which included Duszejko's two dogs. Duszejko said she found the photo at Big Foot's place after his death. Duszejko then recounts Wolski's death. She found him alone after the party and he is sick and asks Duszejko to take him home. She confronts him about shooting her dogs and he admits it but said he didn't know they were her dogs. She then tells him to drink the pheromones she had with her. She then walks him into the forest under the guise of taking him home. Magota, Dyzio and Nowina decide they will help Duszejko and manage to sneak her out of town. The police are onto Duszejko and are out in full force in an attempt to arrest her. Dyzio uses his IT skills to cut the power to the town and allows them to escape.

In the final scene Duszejko, Magota, Dyzio, Nowina, Nowina's brother, Boros are all having lunch happily in a home in the country.

The Polish-language title, Pokot, is a hunting term that refers to the count of wild animals killed. The English title Spoor refers to the traces and tracks left behind by the hunted game.

Discussion with Holland at the premiere of Spoor (Pokot) in Nowa Ruda, south-western Poland

Cast

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 6.5/10.[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10]

In a feature in Film Comment, Amy Taubin praised the film's political critique and its beauty, stating, “Sprawling, wildly beautiful, emotionally enveloping, Spoor earns its vision of utopia. It would not be the most resonant and inspiring political film of the century if it did not give us hope.”[11]

In a positive review for the Krakow Post Giuseppe Sedia wrote, "enriched with some majestic close-ups of wild animals caught in their natural habitat and framed à la Sergei Parajanov, Holland’s film is a sturdy environmental thriller film drenched in a very Czech black humor that could charm trappers and mushroom hunters alike".[12]

In February 2017, director Holland said in an interview for The Guardian: "One journalist for the Polish news agency wrote that we had made a deeply anti-Christian film that promoted eco-terrorism. We read that with some satisfaction and we are thinking of putting it on the promotional posters, because it will encourage people who might otherwise not have bothered to come and see it."[13]

See also

References
  1. kinobox.cz, team at. "Česko-polský snímek Přes kosti mrtvých míří na Berlinale do hlavní soutěže". Kinobox.cz. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  2. "Pokot (Spoor)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  3. "Pokot". The Numbers. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  4. Nick Holdsworth. "Berlin: Agnieszka Holland Talks True Crime Film 'Spoor' and Trying TV's Golden Age (Q&A)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  5. "Spoor (Pokot)". Cineuropa. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  6. "Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, and Sally Potter – First Films for the Competition of the Berlinale 2017". Berlinale. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  7. "Prizes of the International Jury". Berlinale. 18 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  8. Holdsworth, Nick (9 September 2017). "Oscars: Poland Selects 'Spoor' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  9. "Spoor (Pokot) (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  10. "Spoor Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  11. Taubin, Amy. "Mother Earth". Film Comment. Film Society of Lincoln Center. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  12. Sedia, Giuseppe (22 March 2017). "Spoor (2017)". Krakow Post. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  13. "Agnieszka Holland: Pokot reflects divided nature of Polish society". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
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