Reviews

This is something of a forgotten diamond, even in Poland, not many people have seen it. The director, Wojciech Marczewski, has been more active educating young directors (most of Scandinavian 90's new wave guys learned from him in Danish Film School) than film-making lately, and it's a real shame.

Most movies you see are easy to classify. "Escape..." not only is a film you can't really put your finger on, it works on all the levels it tries to achieve. For starters, I think it perfectly describes life in Poland around 80's. With the communist regime still ruling, ordinary people desperately searching for freedom or just trying to float by. Main character's (played brilliantly by 1 of best Polish actors, Janusz Gajos) doubts over his job as a censor echo the tough choices most people had to make at the time.

Then, we get the fantasy part - actors take over a movie doing what they wish on the screen, much to the delight of the audiences rebellious mood, while ordinary people start singing opera completely out of the blue. The questions of artist's responsibility and the role of art in every day life is presented with great power here, and the threat of the film being burned by authorities adds to the drama and the weight of the questions.

The comedy element (the scene around the beginning when secretary tells the boss the actors have rebelled, and he goes mental is one of my favorite scenes ever. In fact, I'll go an watch it again in a minute) is strong as well, helped by a superb cast of supporting actors, and sharp dialog. Marczewski found a great comedy idea in crossing the rebel movie with Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo" and used it well.

It would be enough for most movies, and their directors, but Marczewski wasn't done. He added a bit of pondering about a philosophical problem of sin with some links to Dostoyevski and Shakespeare's works on the subject. In fact, the guy haunting the main character is recognized as "Raskolnikov" (the main character of Dostoyevski's "Crime and Punishment") in the final credits.

All these elements are tied together and balanced with magical directing and rather surprisingly the movie is not overwhelming or too long. Even if you fail to notice all the aspects of this great work, you'll still have a wonderful time and leave inspired if not completely shaken up.

There are not even ten Polish movies I would rate 10 out of 10. However, this is 1 of them.