TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT (Drogówka) (2013) - ♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Wojchiech Smarzowski

 

Written by - Wojchiech Smarzowski

 

Starring - Bartolomej Topa, Arkadiusz Jakibik, Julia Kijowska

 

 

 

"Smarzowski takes a corrupt and immoral police traffic department as a starting point for his provocative thriller that comments heavily on social and political decadence as well as a total lack of violence. The central plot is one of the member of the traffic department wrongly accused of a murder who desperately tries to clear his name and as he does so unearths scandal upon scandal, from small community ones to international scaled ones. While the plot would wrongly lead one to think it unoriginal, Traffic Department is very engaging and wilfully challenging making use of sharp editing and shooting footage from different cameras from professional ones to iPhones. This leads to a jumbled jigsaw-like pace that induces and even forces the viewer to play and active part in the film and interact with it. The conclusions it draws are shocking and confrontational as we witness a fundamental lack of morale and a natural lenience of the characters to vice, particularly with the seven main members of the titular department where each one stands as a representative of each one of the seven deadly sins. Thought provoking and fearless but be warned – this is no work of light entertainment. Traffic Department is experimental and a film that could easily be classified as difficult, though it remarkably became the highest grossing film in Polish cinemas that year."

 

 

Thriller, Poland