There is no drama, there is an exciting story. This Polish movie pulls you in like a swamp

“Wyrwa” is one of those adaptations where you watch in amazement at how much the creators altered the original, only to be even more surprised when you realize how much of the original book was included in the movie. The screenwriter, Marcin Cieszeń, boldly reinterprets well-known events from Wojciech Chmielarz’s prose to make it work on screen. Therefore, what happened in the novel over several months is narrowed down here to one week. The creators placed the entire story between the death of Janina Tomska (Karolina Gruska) and her funeral. Thanks to this, the production is dynamic and evokes intense emotions.

Upon hearing the news of his wife’s death, Maciej Tomski (Tomasz Kot) goes to the Land of a Thousand Lakes, where he meets her lover – actor Kamil Wojnar (Grzegorz Damięcki). Although they start out as enemies, over time they discover that the woman was not an accident victim and did not commit suicide. “Wyrwa” is the plot aspect of “The Debt”. The story focuses on ordinary men who make extreme decisions, which in this case are caused not by a sense of threat, but rather by remorse. This emotion blinds the characters, leading to a maelstrom of recriminations both towards outsiders and themselves. The search for her outlet is a manifestation of a desperate desire for comfort. So, two scenes of dancing in Gray mirage – At the beginning and at the end – very important here. Small shifts in their tone tie the story together, capturing the narrative frame from pain to understanding, from negation to acceptance, and from anger to liberation.

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