„Leave no traces” with awards at three festivals
The film „Leave no traces” by Jan P. Matuszyński received the award in the Best Fiction Film category at the 3KinoFest Central European Cinema Festival in Prague. It also won the Polish Film Festival in Chicago. Earlier, the film was awarded for directing at the festival in Cottbus, Germany. The image, co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, is a Polish candidate for an Oscar.
This Polish-French-Czech co-production had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, where it received the Premio Bisato d’Oro (best picture) critics’ award, and was also included in the Main Competition of the 46th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. The production was also presented in Great Britain at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival.
The film was based on the themes contained in the best-selling report by Cezary Łazarewicz, awarded with the NIKE Literary Award, „Leave no traces. The case of Grzegorz Przemyk”.
Film plot
Poland, 1983. Despite the suspension, the state of martial law imposed by the communist authorities, aimed at suppressing the opposition in Solidarity, is still in force in the country. On May 12, Grzegorz Przemyk, son of the opposition poet Barbara Sadowska, is arrested and badly beaten by a police patrol. Przemyk dies after two days of agony. The only witness to the fatal beating is one of Grzegorz’s colleagues, Jurek Popiel, who decides to fight for justice and to testify against the police. Initially, the state apparatus, including the Ministry of the Interior, downplay the case. However, when over 20,000 people march through the streets of Warsaw behind Przemyk’s coffin, the authorities decide to use all tools against the witness and mother of the deceased to discredit them and prevent Jurek from testifying in court.
Operation Junior, supervised personally by the Minister of the Interior, General Czesław Kiszczak, begins, the main purpose of which is to stop Jurek from revealing the truth and to blame the paramedics who were carrying Przemyk to the ambulance service after a beating. An army of secret police begins to track Jurek and his parents, keeping an eye on their private lives 24 hours a day, while the media and the prosecutor’s office are directed and pressured by the authorities to ensure that the public receives only the “right” messages. Barbara Sadowska, on the other hand, does not lose hope for justice, and representatives of the state authorities and a special group of investigators conduct further meetings on how to suppress the story…
Cast and filmmakers
The main roles in the film are played by Tomasz Ziętek, Sandra Korzeniak, and Mateusz Górski as Grzegorz Przemyk. They are partnered by Jacek Braciak, Agnieszka Grochowska, Robert Więckiewicz, Aleksandra Konieczna, Adam Bobik, Tomasz Kot, Sebastian Pawlak, Andrzej Chyra, Michał Żurawski, Rafał Maćkowiak and Dariusz Chojnacki.
The director is Jan P. Matuszyński, the production company is Aurum Film – Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham, and foreign partners are Les Contes Modernes (France) and Background Films (Czech Republic). The author of the script for the film is Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk. The project includes, inter alia, cinematographer Kacper Fertacz or editor Przemysław Chruścielewski. The music for the film was composed by Ibrahim Maalouf. Kacper Habisiak, Sébastien Crueghe and Jarosław Bajdowski are responsible for the sound, Małgorzata Zacharska for the costumes, and Pola Guźlińska for the make-up. The set design was prepared by Paweł Jarzębski.