[screams]
Fuck!
[director] Stop! Cut! What's going on?
Sorry, the knife is all wet and it slipped.
Practice on sandwiches.
People! This film is to be watched by Andrzej Brejdel.
Fuck! Andrzej Brejdel!
Once again!
Take two. Positions.
Lila, one last time.
One last time.
- Camera! - Turn on.
Rolling.
- Action! - [Lila screams]
[scream continues]
[director] You're at the center of the frame.
We're making a film here.
We're making a film here! You're at the very center...
Fuck! We're running out of time.
We still have five scenes to make, and the room's booked for one more hour.
Grzesiek, it's a great joke, really.
Great stand-up comedy.
Every meter of tape costs two dollars.
Get up!
[woman exclaims]
- Grzesiek! - Call the ambulance!
- Grzesiek! - Call the ambulance now!
INVITATION — PREMIERE ANDRZEJ BREJDEL
[theme music plays]
INVITATION — PREMIERE ANDRZEJ BREJDEL
"Festive premiere.
Before the screening, there will be a meeting with the director at..."
- What do you think? - Wow!
- Mom! - So beautiful!
Don't you think this is too much?
- No, it's great. - You can't go there in a sweatsuit.
You look great.
I'll say it just once and I'll probably regre...
I'll regret it tomorrow.
You look fantastic!
I'd love to have your figure.
- Stop it please! - I'm serious. Wait.
Where did you get this invitation from?
From the messenger.
- What? - [laughing]
- From the messenger. - Mom...
You coming with me? Are you planning to go in this sweatsuit?
- No. - Because I can take somebody else.
Wait! I am coming with you. Calm down.
It's high time!
What do you think?
[applause]
ANDRZEJ BREJDEL PREMIERE OF HEAVEN FULL OF HOLES
In Hollywood they love quotes.
After this film premiered in America, I was crying.
One of the producers approached me,
and asked me, "Andrew,
why are you so sad?"
I said I was sorry that my first film would never be shown in my motherland.
He tried to comfort me by using a quote from Fitzgerald.
It goes like this:
"Never look to the past, because there's no coming back."
Nice, isn't it?
But it's bullshit!
[audience chuckles]
Lodz is no longer as gray as it used to be.
You can no longer smoke in cinemas.
But I did come back.
I came back to exactly the same place I left.
The film school still has the same magic.
Of course, the students are different, but in a way they're the same.
This wonderful potential.
They wholeheartedly desire to express themselves.
And drink lots of vodka in the process.
[audience laughs]
Ladies and gentlemen...
Hi, Andrzej.
Hi.
[applause]
[Kuba] A knife, probably serrated edge.
The pathologist found characteristic marks on the ribs.
Thirteen stab wounds, many bruises. Seems like a crime of passion.
They found him in the film studio at the film school.
Some students were making a short film.
Sit down.
Who is the boy?
Grzegorz Pawlak, 23 years old, studied film directing.
No criminal record. We checked his blood, no traces of drugs.
Hmm. No drugs, and he studied at a film school?
- Seems suspicious. - His teachers called him a poster boy.
One of the most talented.
Mm-hmm.
They found him in a film studio.
The boys had a party. Drank a lot.
And the poster boy got killed.
Apart from the ones working on the student film, there was nobody there.
Most students went to the premiere of Heaven Full of Holes.
- What premiere? This film... - Is more than 30 years old.
- They recently digitized it. - That's why Brejdel flew in.
To get an honorary degree from the university.
He also was to run a workshop for the most talented students.
- Any more info from the school? - No.
No CCTV.
Student government saw it as a limitation on freedom and took it down.
Okay, get going, visit the school, and talk to these artists.
Quietly. The media are starting to snoop about.
What a photo you have, Mum!
Oh, my!
"The director who had relationships with some famous actresses..."
- Stop it! - "...now admits that the mysterious Anna..."
[laughs]
"...was the only woman in his life that he truly loved."
He always had an inclination for exaggerations and loftiness.
Wow! "She was the only one who broke up with the director."
You really dumped him?
Did he cheat on you? Wasn't good enough in bed?
Shouldn't you be working now and driving your clients?
Sorry, I got so pumped up.
Was all that serious?
Child, when you're 20 years old, everything is very serious.
All relationships are serious and short-lived.
There are six photographers with big cameras in front of the house.
They just took a photo of me.
- Hi, Henio. - Hi.
Congratulations, you will appear in newspapers with your carrots.
- Come quickly, I'll show you something. - Stop it!
- Look! - Ola!
- See her photo. - What?
- Have a look. - Can you stop, please?
I'm warning you.
"The director who had relationships with some famous actresses,
now admits that the mysterious Anna..."
- You never talked about this. - What was I supposed to say?
There's nothing to say. I haven't seen him in years.
- Talk that out. - Okay.
You will meet him and can talk with him, because he invited us to dinner.
- Us? - Me, but you're my boyfriend.
- And you will go with me! - Okay, no need to get angry.
Because...
Why?
Something fell down.
Okay, I'm going to the kitchen.
This is what student dorms look like now?
[Beata] I'll ask at the reception.
Last time I saw him was two... three days ago.
Jesus! If only I knew...
[Kuba] Grzesiek was your boyfriend, right?
You last saw him three days ago, yet you live in the same room.
Did you have a fight?
Mm-mmm. He worked a lot.
On what?
He's been working on a documentary on Brejdel... for a year.
He entitled it Maestro. He thought it would be his ticket to Los Angeles.
When it turned out Brejdel would be giving a course at our school...
he fell into some sort of a trance.
He kept repeating that the truth looks differently from a close distance.
Differently how?
- Have you seen his film? - [woman scoffs]
He didn't even have a cinematographer. He shot it all himself.
But the materials must be stored somewhere.
Probably on his computer.
They might be as well deep underground.
- Why? - He was obsessed
that somebody might steal something from him.
It's all encrypted.
We will see.
Okay, thank you.
- We're taking this with us. - Thanks.
POLISH HEART-THROB WHO CONQUERED THE UNITED STATES
- [Anna] What are you doing? - What?
Nothing.
- Checking a recipe. - [phone rings]
Hello?
Right. I understand. But maybe...
Of course, the rules are clear.
I'll be there ASAP.
- What happened? - Natalia. They called from the center.
She left in the evening and returned in the morning.
That's twice already.
She refused to take a drug test.
They're expelling her from therapy.
I have to take care of her.
Take Klara with you. Bring them here.
I'll cancel Andrzej. We'll have dinner and talk with her.
Don't cancel, go. I'll take care of them.
- I don't want to go without you. - And I don't want you to miss out.
Give me a break. Who wouldn't want to have dinner with Brejdel?
Sarcasm.
God forbid. Bye.
Keep me posted.
Kuba, bro, don't move the phone so much. I can't see the codes.
Okay, now I know. Take the pen drive out and put in the modem.
Hold it.
Coming.
[in English] I'm in.
- It's him doing this? - Who else?
Blue light affects melatonin levels
and has adverse effects on concentration, whereas orange light helps you think.
- You have an alien on your team. - I know.
Now your alien needs 15 minutes of silence. Turn me off.
Okay, I'll get you something to drink.
Sit down.
Sorry for the mess. I didn't know I'd have a police raid on my apartment.
[phone rings]
Yes?
Okay.
I have to return to the station. If anybody asks, I wasn't here.
- It'd be great if you could... - Excuse me.
Of course.
- Hi. - Hello.
When you said "dinner," I thought...
I'm sorry, they planned this party a month ago.
Let's get out of here. It's extremely formal here.
- Where to? - Let's go to the terrace.
[blows raspberry]
What are you doing?
Face massage. I recommend it to you.
Thank you, but I don't need a face massage.
You're not getting younger.
Soon you'll be spending a fortune on Botox injections.
Massage is the better way.
- Thank you very much. - Better to prevent than to cure.
Right.
[phone rings]
I've looked through the files on the murdered student's computer.
I made a copy of the disk in case something breaks down.
Anyway, the folder called "Maestro" includes a few unedited videos.
"Maestro" is my mom's ex-boyfriend.
We know. The whole country knows now.
- It's going viral. - Everybody talks about it.
Have a look for yourself.
I'm happy we're able to finally meet,
especially in such a place as the Lodz Film School.
- You probably have many memories. - Yes. I'm very fond of this place.
It's been 40 years.
Have you heard the nickname Kramer?
This case has been closed.
I have officially been exonerated.
I was found not guilty. I was the victim.
What if I tell you that I found people who testify that...
you denounced others?
This is bullshit.
What about lives and careers you destroyed? It's bullshit, too?
The documents regarding my alleged collaboration with the secret police
were all crude forgeries.
The trial took five years.
The IPN investigated every detail.
- You really want to talk about this? - That's why they let you leave?
You denounced others and they gave you a passport. Was it easier in California
to forget about the friends whose lives you ruined?
[Grzegorz yelps]
I have to show this to Kuba.
If I ever see you again, I...
That's the last video from Grzesiek's computer.
A day before he got killed.
Okay.
Go, but quietly. I don't want TV crews in front of my station tomorrow.
Let's go.
[Brejdel] When I saw you, I felt this again.
[Anna] Felt what?
[laughs] I don't know. I felt clean.
As if I was 20 years old again.
- Oh, my! - Without all that cynicism.
I spent my life telling stories,
but when I saw you, I understood
that I didn't write the most important one.
What story?
Ours.
- I haven't felt like this since then. - [Anna inhales]
Wow! Such a line. Maybe it would sound believable when spoken by Michael Douglas.
Or by one of your three wives.
Okay, I get it. You can mock me all you like.
- I'm not mocking you. - But I thought that if I didn't try...
- Good evening. - Can you wait a moment?
There will be time to take photos. We're having an important conversation.
I'm afraid our conversation is even more important.
We're from the police.
You're coming with us.
You know how critical I usually am of people.
- Believe me, she is. - Right.
I don't believe he could murder somebody.
I know him and I think it's impossible.
It's all circumstantial evidence. They will just interrogate him. The video...
I went to the police station. They arrested him.
I'll look through Grzesiek's files again. Maybe I missed something.
I'll look into his collaboration with the secret police.
Thank you all.
Thank you, too.
Henryk.
Hey.
- Hi! - Hi, Natalia!
The dinner ended so soon?
How was it?
Is something wrong?
Bad news.
I'll have bad news for you once my lawyer calls the president.
This has to be a joke.
Not a funny one, though.
What is it?
It's the knife used to murder Grzegorz Pawlak.
What does it have to do with me?
It was found by the bathtub in your hotel room.
A hundred people must have been there since I came.
Students, friends. Everybody wanted to say hi.
Anybody could plant this knife.
Maybe, but you were in conflict with Grzegorz Pawlak.
Who is he? What conflict?
You threatened to kill him.
We know he was making a documentary about you
and asked inconvenient questions
about your contacts with the secret police.
You're a young person. You cannot understand
what your predecessors could do to a person during the previous regime.
The secret police destroyed my life. Drove me out of my home,
and away from my loved ones.
The investigation lasted five years, and I was proved innocent.
And yet some student digs it all up and calls you a traitor.
You got mad.
Of course I did.
And I would beat him up again.
But I'd never kill him.
I'd never kill anybody.
The first accusations appeared the early '90s.
They found a file on him as an informant in the secret police archives.
The file was a forgery, but people started repeating this gossip.
They started drawing conclusions. He moved to the West, he got his passport.
He must have collaborated.
My mom doesn't know about it.
After a five year investigation, he was pronounced innocent.
He was granted victim status.
So does this mean Grzesiek had some crazy ideas?
Not necessarily.
I went through his videos.
I found a few interviews with a guy called Roman Kos.
An ex-secret police officer.
When some documents were made public, we were told to burn all his files.
I had one year left until retirement so I didn't question it.
[man] Okay, but why did they tell you to burn them?
Everybody wanted to be friends with him.
He was a national treasure.
The country has been transformed.
He was our export.
I know the place they're talking about.
It's close to my house.
That Brejdel is quite a bastard.
But when somebody has three wives, you can suspect that...
he might have killed somebody.
With three wives, yes. With two, no.
- What?! - Interesting theory.
- Goodbye. - Goodbye.
Any update?
He was emailed photos of his girlfriend by Pierre G.
Strange, isn't it?
Looks like some photographer's logo.
Let's check this.
Pierre, is that you?
- Hello. - Hello.
Bogdan.
Friends call me Boguś.
Do you think only you need nicknames?
This job pays well, but usually I take portrait photos.
We'd like to talk.
Real twins. Wow!
- My first time... - Right...
If you take in clients together, you can easily charge them 1,500 an hour.
Maybe 2,000.
- But... - No buts.
Every guy fantasizes about twins! Every guy!
I swear.
Do you remember this girl?
You're really cute but...
Prywatki. pl buys around 1,000 photos a year.
I'd go crazy if I tried to remember half of these girls.
Something else?
- Prywatki.pl. - [Ola] Is that an escort agency?
Yes, sort of.
But a very luxurious one.
High rates, meetings in hotels only. Lila had her profile there.
Her alias was Anastazja.
When there's an order, you do it.
I felt sorry for Brejdel...
At first, he tried to resist us.
- And you broke him? - Wasn't difficult.
He was finishing his first film. He would sell his own mother to save it.
After a month, he told us all we wanted to know.
It took us just six months to jail his class prefect.
Even a professor who had underground publications at home.
All thanks to his confessions.
Why do you talk about it now?
You told Grzesiek this story, in front of the camera.
Because I can't stand it.
I'm 70 years old and I have to work nights as a janitor for extra money.
People spit in front of me.
And this Brejdel who got his friends jailed...
lies on the beach in Hollywood...
and has all the young asses.
Is this justice?
Which bureau did you work at?
It changed.
They moved us around. It's a long story.
I have time.
[knocking]
Come in.
Hi.
Is Lila here?
Lila is making a short film here in the dorm.
- Do you want me to take you there? - Ah. Sure, great!
Lila didn't mention having an older sister.
Well, we live in different cities. That's probably why.
But once I heard what happened, I had to come immediately.
It's horrible.
I saw her with Grzesiek only once,
but I think they loved each other.
They were a great couple, weren't they?
I don't know. Recently they quarreled a lot.
Grzesiek stayed at her place less and less.
He started to be jealous and pick at things from the past.
What things?
I don't know. It was nonsense.
I'll show you the set.
[woman sobbing]
Cut! Stop!
[crew clapping]
[director] Can somebody move the monitor so it's out of the camera's way?
Twenty minute break. Pee and poo.
Fucking awesome.
Lila is having an affair with Stefan.
And that guy from the documentary is bullshitting.
He wasn't handling Brejdel.
- How do you know? - He mixed up his departments.
He didn't understand procedures.
I asked my colleagues from my old job to check up on him.
But I'd be surprised if he even was in SB.
You think somebody planted him?
Maybe he was a policeman and he's having some ideas now.
Or maybe he's looking for attention.
I need to tell Kuba about this. Bye.
[Kuba] Come in.
Please have a seat. Over there.
What is this about? I told you everything already.
There are new developments in the case.
Like what?
DOSSIER
I no longer do it.
But you did do it?
I wanted some extra income.
Surely it's not a crime that my family is not rich?
Did somebody use the photos to blackmail Grzesiek? Or you?
Me? It doesn't affect me.
I don't understand.
I don't fucking care.
I'm not ashamed of it. At least I lived something.
I still don't get it.
An actress needs to have lived something.
Wow.
Have you been sleeping with Stefan for long?
[laughs]
Is this a crusade or what?
I can do whatever I want. It's the 21st century.
Right. Grzesiek thought that as well?
Grzesiek didn't know anything.
Jesus! Can you fix this fucking printer?
Sure.
Just a moment.
Annie, there's this little button that you press.
And the little pages come out.
- [printer whirs] - [chuckles] What is this?
A petition to free Andrzej.
- Who is to sign it? - All the important people.
His professors, actors.
I don't care. Let the pope sign it.
- What is this about? - Nothing.
I don't want you to get engaged in something that will turn against you.
Against me?
He spent the last 20 years in another world.
He had three divorces and was indicted three times for beating people up.
- He can't control himself. - Stop it!
- I know you used to know him well. - I won't listen to it. Stop it!
Sure.
I'll go for a walk.
Mum...
Try to understand him.
It does look suspicious from the outside.
- What if he has changed? - Of course he has! I have too!
Why didn't you tell me?
Would that change anything?
Why did you dump him?
- He told me to. - What? Why?
They wanted to recruit him at all cost.
The secret police harassed him.
He was the most talented student, and professors loved him.
He would have been a perfect informant.
When he refused, they started looking for leverage.
That was you.
I got a scholarship at a research institute in Vienna.
I was starting my third year. We just had one microscope per group.
They had modern equipment, new possibilities.
They told him if he refused to cooperate,
they wouldn't let me go.
And you met Dad in Vienna, right?
Fuck!
I was able to go there thanks to Andrzej.
He told me to dump him publicly.
In front of witnesses.
At that time...
I felt as if I were betraying him and myself at the same time.
A month later he left Poland. We never saw each other again.
He never returned.
I loved only two men in my life.
Him and your father.
[typing]
Stefan Front?
Yes.
Your ID, please.
Am I a suspect?
No, it's just routine. But I need your data.
Thank you.
- An interesting name, by the way. - I won't succeed in LA with a Polish name.
It needs to be something memorable.
Grzesiek wanted to move to the US, too?
Great, Sherlock. Do you know someone who doesn't want to leave this country?
You two were competitors?
No.
We respected each other.
We created different films. We had different styles.
In bed, too?
[chuckles]
What kind of question is that?
Lila cheated on him with you.
Did you two have a fight over it?
No. As far as I know, they weren't married.
What kind of crazy idea is this?
I wouldn't have to kill a man to be with Lila.
Why didn't she leave him if she slept with you, Sherlock?
I don't know. You would have to ask her.
What sort of an interrogation is this?
Are you policing students' morality?
I thought the moral police was disbanded after the war.
I have classes, you know. Can I go now?
Hey.
[knocks]
I'm collecting signatures for the petition to free Andrzej Brejdel.
Most of your colleagues already signed it.
I don't understand. So why do you need me then?
Professor, you are the biggest authority in the industry.
They all look up to you.
Then I probably can't sign it.
I can't vouch for Andrzej.
Why?
How to put it? I don't know if Brejdel is a killer...
but I do know he's a thief.
- I don't understand. - Heaven Full of Holes.
He stole his whole first film from someone.
Not only the script. The camera work, its characteristic lighting...
all of it was somebody else's idea.
Impossible. I saw him making this film.
And I saw another student from the same year inventing this film.
And then his idea was stolen.
What was his name?
Wiktor... I'm sure.
Czapiński. I think.
- And what happened with him? - No idea.
As far as I remember, he stopped studying during the third year.
We never heard of him again.
He's not in the school database.
But they only keep the graduates there.
This might as well be a rumour.
Tea is ready.
Nothing on the Internet.
If the guy really exists, he didn't do anything worthwhile.
There's only one Wiktor Czapiński, an athlete.
- [Natalia] Czaplicki. - What?
Wiktor Czaplicki, not Czapiński.
What are you talking about?
That was a character from Brejdel's film, Green Oranges. Don't you know it?
He made the film in the USA, around 1995.
It had bad reviews, but they show it on TV at night and I have trouble sleeping.
What is it about?
Two mathematicians. And the Czaplicki guy discovers a breakthrough formula.
But things get complicated
and his friend, Ringdove, I think,
gets all the glory.
At the end, Czaplicki shots himself.
The ending is lame but the rest is quite good.
[Klara] Mum, the cartoon ended.
"Ringdove"...
That's "Grzywacz" in Polish, right?
Yes.
Andrzej...
He had a mane, and I called him Grzywacz because of his hair.
Only I called him that.
Seriously?
[all chuckling]
You find it funny? It's an important trail.
- Sure. - It's not funny.
I'll have some tea.
- [chokes on tea] - [all laughing]
Doesn't make any sense.
But...
Do you have a better idea?
I have a suspect and a tool.
And you have some story from a film that's not related to Grzegorz's death.
Okay. But could you check this Wiktor Czaplicki for me?
- No. - Please, do it for me.
Please.
Only this one time!
Where was that?
LY 1999.
Here you are.
Let's see.
Died by hanging himself.
Drunk, 2.7 per 1,000 blood alcohol content.
So it's a true story. But still, what's the connection?
"The body was found by his wife,
Brygida Czaplicka, and a minor, Stefan Czaplicki, his son."
One moment.
[phone ringing]
Get me information on Stefan Front.
Yes. Born in 1995.
No, I want to know his family name.
Once again?
Czaplicki.
Thank you.
Take your jacket and let's go.
Fucking impossible.
The situation has changed.
Changed? I'm still handcuffed.
You'll have to play a little role.
- [reporter] It's him! - [Kuba] For fuck's sake!
[engine starts]
[reporters] Mr. Brejdel! Mr. Brejdel!
Andrzej...
Let's go.
I heard you dream of Hollywood.
For this, one needs to have thick skin.
They're either shitting you all the time...
or, if they praise you, it means they're plotting against you.
Thanks for the advice.
I'll remember it.
Your father didn't have thick skin.
I kept telling him, "You must make this film.
You must."
It was genius.
But he was afraid, and a director cannot be afraid.
It was a great idea.
But your father didn't have the courage.
So I made the film.
You didn't even mention him in the fucking credits.
I know. I was young.
I wanted to conquer the world. I didn't want to share it with anybody.
I'm sorry.
You think your father could be in my place?
If he had made this film, he would be a great director now?
Bullshit!
He had a good idea but he was a coward. An ordinary coward.
And you're a coward, too.
You wanted to make a documentary about the mysterious career of Brejdel.
Are you afraid?
You are.
Everybody would learn what a prick you are.
A thief.
And then your colleague Grzegorz also wanted to make a film about me.
And you got scared.
It was my idea.
It was my idea. My fucking idea!
Cinema is not a race, son.
The winner is the best one, not the first one.
And your old guy... wasn't the best.
He wasn't even good.
He was just...
[exhales]
Shut up! Shut up!
Do you understand? Shut up!
Shut up!
You... Shut up!
Is everything okay?
- Here you are. Be careful, it's hot. - Thank you.
You won't believe it.
Stefan has been treated by a psychiatrist since he found his father hanged himself.
- I'm not surprised. - Well...
How exactly did it happen?
Grzesiek found a producer for a film about Brejdel.
He shot most of the material.
Stefan knew if Grzesiek's film was first, his film would end up in the drawer.
He didn't want to end up like his father.
So he planned on framing Brejdel from the beginning.
He says he had this idea later on.
He entered Brejdel's apartment with some friends.
He left a knife and prints behind the bathtub.
He didn't have a criminal record, so we only just IDed him.
Hmm.
Some milk?
Sorry, but nothing can save this coffee.
- Sorry. - That's the truth. No...
We do have a coffee machine. Come.
Come.
Okay.
I'll ask you for the last time.
Is there really no future for us?
For us?
Americans are right. There's no coming back.
That's not true. Some things never change.
Your hair changed a lot.
[laughs]
It seems all there is for me in Poland is unhappy love
and men in uniform.
But if you want to come for a while... or forever...
whenever you want.
Mmm.
Don't worry. They have to say goodbye.
I'm going to her.
So what, Mum? Are you sure you don't want to move to California?
Well?
There would be some advantages. It's always warm there.
You would live under a palm tree. I'd move in with you, of course,
because you love to live with me. You would miss me.
We don't want that.
So I'd be bringing you cocktails,
- I would help you put sunscreen on. - Shut up!
- And you would help me. - I have three men in my life.
Not two.
[Anna laughs]
Please! No!
[phone ringing]
Subtitles translated by Łukasz Dutka