‘A CLOSED SYSTEM’ – a shocking, fact-based hunting
Fr. ŁUKASZ PASTERNIAK
Poaching is one of the most urgent problems of hunting. This is a cruel procedure of catching a wild animal by illegal methods, forbidden by hunting law. Despite continuous actions aiming at overcoming this problem, the scale of poaching in Poland is still enormous. It is also fostered by the very system of extremely mild punishments.
A prosecutor Kostrzewa (an excellent role of Janusz Gajos), beside his care about the country, so that it would be a country of law, he is also a great passionate of hunting and collects more trophies with delight, of which he is proud. However, his purpose is not only a wild animal, but – as it turned out later – also a man. During opening the Computer Establishments NAVAR, with the accompaniment of opera songs, he notices a small and how fascinating prey for himself. He starts an intrigue aimed at possessing somebody else’s property. Looking for allies, he gains approval and help of a colleague working in a tax office – the head of the tax office (his role played by Kazimierz Kaczor). An action of hunting starts, aiming at arresting innocent entrepreneurs and taking over their income business.
‘A closed system’ directed by Ryszard Bugajski is a new film of an author of ‘Hearing’, telling about how soulless clerks are destroying the creators of a good company in an unjust way. Young businessmen, the target of hunting: Marek Stawski (Przemysław Sadowski), Grzegorz Rybarczyk (Jarosław Kopaczewski) and Piotr Maj (Robert Olech) are brutally arrested. When one day, at 6 a.m. agents of the Central Investigation Office and armoured anti-terrorists are entering their homes, none of the entrepreneurs has got an idea why they are accused of acting in an organised criminal group and making illegal money. When after seven months spent in the custody in an unjust way, they are freed, it turns out that their company, property achieved throughout their life have been destroyed, their dignity has been trampled, their families have been hurt and they have been irreversibly hurt for ever.
It is difficult to believe it, but this story really happened. The film ‘A closed system’ was made on the basis of real events which had taken place in 2003 in Cracow. And this fact frightens the most. The way, in which the representatives of the authority treat the man, frightens and sometimes seems unbelievable. Because how can people be imprisoned in the country of law, and how can they be refused an access to an attorney? How can clerks be at large, who committed extremely serious offenses? What is more, they take over the same positions, and even get promoted? The strongest moment of the film are the final writings: nobody of people who had destroyed the three businessmen, took responsibility.
Unfortunately, it is not a fabricated fiction, but facts documented by the film-makers Mirosław Piepka and Michał Pruski. In one of interviews Mirosław Piepka said: - No, it is not the business of Mr Kluska, but Paweł Rey, Grzegorz Nici and Lech Jeziorny. I can say that, comparing to what was done to them by the state, Mr Kluska was treated mildly, in the method of the so-called white gloves. All film scenes which concern the main heroes, the scenes even unbelievable, are real in a hundred per cent. This all happened – in the allegedly democratic – country of law.
Bugajski wants to help a viewer realise the fact that when we live our daily life, we are impressed by the achievements of technology, when we enjoy family life, then near us, there are unclear mechanisms functioning all the time, which influence our life in a way which we cannot understand.
Today the well-off elite of clerks, whose roots reach the times of communism and existing rules and practices at that time, are still cynically destroying the man and feel unpunished at the same time. The film ‘A closed system’ shows that people brought up in the previous system are also well-off in the present one and are still realising ideas of the totalitarian reality.
The director of the film drives a cat among the pigeons and wants to force to another discussion and reflection on whether ‘a thick line’ was not a mistake though. We, Poles, have not settled the past, after twenty-some years these matter are still painful for us and brings shameful fruits.
The film director of the famous ‘Hearing’, in which he ruthlessly attacked the system of the Polish People’s Republic, in the latest film shows the infected world of human freedom, in which we must live. Polish democracy is marked with old systems and customs, practices remembering old times of the communist system, which are inevitably overwhelming the world of values, in which we live. This concealed nosogenic element becomes dangerous and it should be overcome as soon as possible. It is one of the most urgent problems of our reality. Paraphrasing this promotion motto of the film, it can be said that tomorrow you can be a target of their sophistically constructed hunting.
The film ‘A closed system’ tells about disgraceful, shameful, anger-raising part of our everyday life. I hope that it is a marginal part of this reality in which we move. The film ‘A closed system’ is a good, well-directed film with something interesting to tell about. It belongs to the trend of not only a social film, but also a film of moral anxiety. We are glad by the fact that art wants to be a mirror of our condition and inspire us to talk and also warn us. Surely this film is worth watching.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 16/2013