Spoor Movie Review
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Cast: Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Miroslav Krobot, Jakub Gierszal, Patricia Volny, Tomasz Kot
Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 1/6/21
Opens: January 22, 2021
The difference between a B-movie crime story/TV episode like NCIS and an art movie that deserves greater concentration, is that the crimes, be they murder, robbery, rape, kidnap, and arson, should be entertaining thrillers, while the more intellectual dramas use the crimes as stepping-stones to the development of characters. “Spoor”is a good example of the latter. The title refers to the scent, droppings, even the trails trodden by animals. Animals, specifically dogs, boars, and antelopes, each have their brief starring roles, quite necessary to the development of plot. Since this is a film by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland, you would expect the story to be similar to that of her other contributions, such as her 2011 film “In Darkness” about one man’s
âSpoorâ Review: Hunters in the Snow
This oddly structured whodunit from Poland is a reverie wrapped around a murder mystery.
Agnieszka Mandat in âIdentifying Features.âCredit.Palka Robert/Samuel Goldwyn Films
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Not Rated
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âSpoor,â directed by the Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland and her daughter, Kasia Adamik, went nearly four years without an American release. At the New York Film Festival the fall after its February 2017 premiere, the critic Amy Taubin, one of its many champions, introduced it as perhaps her favorite film so far that decade. She has interpreted it as a politically charged critique of Polish patriarchy.
It took nearly four years for legendary Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s “Spoor” to reach American screens. In 2017, “Spoor” won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was selected as Poland’s Oscar entry in addition to receiving special notices from both the National Society of Film Critics and the Indiewire Critics Poll as the best film awaiting distribution. It finally arrives on VOD Jan. 22, thanks to Samuel Goldwyn Films. This wildly entertaining eco-feminist crime caper, anchored by a winning lead performance from Agnieszka Mandat, isn’t just worth the wait, it’s an imperative watch.
Holland adapted the script from Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk‘s 2009 novel, “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.” The film’s Polish title, “Pokot,” refers to the traditional ritual ending of a group hunting expedition, a count of the slaughtered animals, while “Spoor,” derived from Dutch, means the track or scent of an