POKOT
Poland, 2017, 128 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
Agnieszka Holland has made films all over the world, in her native Poland as well is in the United States. Here she returns to Poland.
This is a slow-moving drama, a focus on an older woman (and perhaps this was the attraction for the director, able to identify with this woman in age and in outlook). The woman teaches English in a local school but is criticised for her unorthodox methods of dealing with the young children, taking them on excursions into the woods, and is fired from her position.
The synopsis for the film would indicate that there is quite a deal of action – and that is true only that the action takes a long time and the film moves very slowly.
The portrait is that of Janina, living alone, interested in astrology, love for her pets whom she finds killed, concerned about environmental issues, friendly with the young woman in difficulties in the town, friendly with the young man, an epileptic, who helps her.
In the meantime, there are quite a number of authority figures in the town, the police chief, the mayor, the parish priest. They are concerned with activities that Janina does not approve of, hunting, a casino… And, throughout the film, each of these characters is found murdered.
There is an interlude where a Czech scientist, examining ants in the forest, is confronted by Janina but they form a friendship after the finding of yet another body.
It is highly likely that the audience will work out halfway through the film who was responsible for the deaths – which might make the buildup to the revelation, and the burning of the church and the death of the parish priest who has been severely critical of Janina and her belief in animal souls and environmental causes, seem somewhat anticlimactic.
For some audiences the film might be hard going, depending on identifying with the Polish sensibility, the feminist sensibility and the environmental causes and the consequences.
1. The impact? Issues of the environment, planets and astrology, animals, as pets, and animals being slaughtered?
2. The West Poland setting, the opening mountains and forests, views, the seasons throughout the film, the months and the different permits for hunting? The home, ordinariness? The school? The police officers? The church? Homes? The musical score?
3. The focus on Janina and her spelling her surname, her perspective, concealing the full information until the end? Her home, the computer and the planets’ screen, her belief and astrology, the opening voice-over and her explanations? With the dogs, her walking with them? Giving lifts, her friendship with the young girl at the shop? The disappearance of the dogs, her being distraught, getting the children out in the night, searching for the dog, a field expedition, the teaching English? The reprimands from the staff? Her complaints to the police? Her being called in about the dead man, the complaint about not being answered? The bodies throughout the film, the police chief, the criminal, the mayor, the priest? Her friendliness with her neighbour, working on the body? Her retrieving the photo – and the revelation later? Her friends, the girl at the shop, taking the calendar at the police station and the young man and letting her be? His epileptic fit and her help? The police doctor, his father? The animals being seen in the season? The Czech scientist and insects, confronting her, the body, his friendliness, the sexual encounter? The neighbour, taken aback, the invitation to the social, her dressing up? Her going, the excitement, her comforting the mayor’s wife?
4. The chief of police, in debt to the criminal, the mayor at the casino, harsh and his wife? The criminal, the cages with the foxes? His domination of the young girl?
5. Her going to the priest, his views, strict, harsh? Urging her to pray? Quoting Genesis and subjugation of the earth? Saying her praying for animals was obscene, that the animals have no souls, that the cemetery for animals was a blasphemy, that she should pray for herself? His support of the hunt? The church, the celebration, the children singing, the lyrics about hunting, his homily, fierce stance, again quoting Genesis? Her setting the church on fire, his death?
6. The young girl, concerned about her brother at the orphanage, considered unfit, in jail, accused of the murder? Her attraction to the young man?
7. The young man, training in Berlin, his epilepsy, leaving, his expertise in IT, at the police station, the fit, helped by the two women, helping Janina, driving and his expertise in blacking out the city?
8. The neighbour, the flashbacks to the story of his mother, the war, the harsh father, the German mother, hanging herself and his finding her?
9. When did the audience work out who was doing the killings? Earlier or later? The young girl and the man working it out, the neighbour?
10. The flashbacks, the visualising of the killings, the freeing of the foxes, bashing the criminal, the mayor and his swallowing the pheromones and death by insects?
11. The escape, setting the house on fire, bombing the bridge, the blackout in the city?
12. The end, the family atmosphere, the young man and woman, the child, the neighbour, the Czech friend, her caring for the bees, wandering – and disappearing?
13. The modern world and animal causes, environmental causes? The enthusiasts being seen as somewhat mad? The film stances about killing and saving animals?
