Directed by: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Starring: Andrzej Konopka, Reiri Kishima, Noomi Rapace, George Aurimas Cris
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Agnieszka Smoczyńska is not the only bold lady cineaste in current Polish cinema. Still, few filmmakers have displayed such a nonchalant openness to tackling different genres. Her debut film, The Lure (2015), a neon-lit mermaid musical set in Warsaw, was followed by another domestic feature-length effort, Fugue (2018), a sombre drama centred on an amnesiac woman. More recently, she directed her first English-language feature, Silent Twins (2022), a biopic based on the Welsh sisters’ real-life clinical case and interspersed with gore-soaked animation sequences.
This is why her decision to embark on a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in a more arid-than-ever Greece comes as only a partial surprise. Hot Spot is set in the future, where a sentient AI known as the Head governs every aspect of human life. Yet Smoczyńska’s vision of the future is firmly rooted in the past, infused with an 1980s retro-futuristic aesthetic and populated by sharp-cornered cars from the same era, propelled by solar panels beneath the scorching sun.
Detective Jan 623 (Andrzej Konopka) is assigned to investigate a murder in a refugee camp, leaving behind his estranged wife, Aika (Reika Kirishima), an avant-garde performer, and their young son, Zen (George Aurimas Cris), who are both struggling to stay connected to the Head. When refugee Rana (Noomi Rapace) emerges as the prime suspect, Jan soon discovers that the truth is far more com plicated than it first appears.
On the bright side, Hot Spot invites viewers to scratch beneath the surface of its campy aesthetics and uses visual ambiguity to leave some questions unanswered. the plot leaves room for interpretation regarding the origins of the refugees who roam the barren wastelands or are confined to camps. Are they immigrants from the Global South displaced by drought, or Europeans struggling to survive the consequences of climate change?
Even the deliberately incoherent costume design, created by Smoczyńska’s longtime collaborator Katarzyna Lewińska, serves this purpose. During the investigation, Jan’s outfits range from a black-and-white glam rock suit to a kilt worn with a leather jacket. This is hardly the standard attire of a detective, even in a distant future. In the dystopian world of Hot Spot, appearances, gender, and identity no longer matter. Society is divided instead between those connected to the Head and those who are not.
Yet the same eccentricity that makes the film visually intriguing often undermines its storytelling. Hot Spot is a testament to Smoczyńska’s unbridled creativity, but it struggles to maintain narrative momentum. The fact that its characters communicate telepathically does little to foster emotional engagement, while the cast’s varied non-native English accents reinforce the film’s sense of dislocation. Rather than fully exploring its compelling themes of global warming and displacement, the narrative piles one bizarre spectacle upon another, very often to the viewer’s detriment.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on October 12, 2026