A still from the movieCategory: World Cinema
Language: Polish
Director: Filip Bajon
Running time: 91 minutes
Damaged is Agatha Christie in Polish language. It has most of the ingredients that make up an old-fashioned crime thriller. Featured in World Cinema category at IFFK, the film moves stealthily, like a better crime thriller, and keeps the audience guessing till the end.
Melanie comes to Poland, her homeland, to visit her mother, brother and his wife. A glorious yesteryear household with noble standing in society, the family seemed to have had a lot of influence upon Melanie’s childhood and how it shaped her. She has, along with her a psychiatrist, who is interested in her family history as well.
A filmmaker in the making, Melanie wants to cash in on the dark secrets of the family. She’s the new-age filmmaker who thinks movies about civil wars won’t sell; one has to consider morbid stories, of pain and crime and incurable diseases.
Time takes them back to the days when her grandmother Mrs Dulska used to be a tyrant. Aristocratic to the core, she couldn’t bear it when her son started to evidently fancy Hanka, the housemaid.
The story takes us to the childhood of Melanie’s motherMelanie’s mother, who was a child then, was witness to something significant, for she used to keep saying “You’ve blood on your hands, mother” to Mrs Dulska. Hanka was said to have been killed in the house.
The story takes us to the childhood of Melanie’s mother, and back to Melanie’s, both of which had significant details of the crime. The frames are filled with conversations inducing thoughts of numerous possibilities.
A crime drama through the eyes of a child, it almost feels a shade akin to that of Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder. However, bigger turning points lead to more intrigue and an outcome few would have imagined. Full of life, vigour and colours of the past, Damaged is not just a crime drama, but also a mockery of it. Beyond the boundaries of crime, the film interestingly shows various aspects related to it—guilt, remorse, and power hierarchies.
Star factors
» The period appeal of the film
» Well-executed story
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