The Cinematheque

“A film that flickers with ideas and intent.”

Jason Wood, MUBI Notebook

Krzysztof Kieślowski had been making documentaries for a decade before he directed his first theatrical feature. Based on reportage by journalist Romuald Karaś (credited as co-writer), The Scar follows Bednarz (Franciszek Pieczka), a project manager and honest Party man who is posted, with some reluctance, to the backwater small town where he grew up. He’s there to oversee the construction of a large chemical factory and, it is hoped, to smooth the ruffled feathers of the various locals arguing over the ill-advised, environmentally unsound project. Keeping all the parties happy begins to erode Bednarz’s personal and professional life. Kieślowski regular Jerzy Stuhr plays the ambitious, mendacious local Party boss, while filmmaker Agnieszka Holland appears as the factory’s bespectacled secretary. The Scar reveals Kieślowski’s talent for incisive observation and keen sociopolitical analysis honed during his years of nonfiction filmmaking. Notably, a documentary crew factors into the film’s social realist storytelling.

In Polish with English subtitles

“A dive into the thickets of Polish bureaucracy in the Communist era, lent an unmistakable veracity thanks to the director’s apprenticeship in documentary.”

Metrograph (New York)