Starring: Maja Pankiewicz, Paula Krzyżanśka, Marcin Czarnik
Directed by: Piotr Adamski
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Every now and again a new filmmaker appears on the scene to prove that Polish cinema as well is occasionally capable of displaying a certain facility in playing with film genres. Filmed in 17 days Piotr Adamski’s debut recounts with nonchalance on the big screen the hostility among two families in a suburban setting. The clans involved in the confrontation bear the names of two of the most commons surnames in Poland – Nowak and Kowalski. Eastern is not an ordinary story of neighbors at war. The chieftains of the respective families decided to throw in the fray their young daughters to restore the lost honor.
Adamski’s film co-written with Michał Grochowiak is set against the scenery of an imaginary well-off small town in Poland. The americanization of the setting is a clever move here. Ewa Nowak (Maja Pankiewicz), the ”chaser” dressed in black, and younger Klara Kowalska (Paulina Krzyzanska), the ”chased”, wearing kill-bill-esque yellow, can go shopping in firearm stores to better fight each other to the death. The girls play cat and mouse around suburban single-family houses and semi-abandoned parking lots framed using serene wide angle shots.
The film’s plot heavily revolves around the topics of vendetta and sense of belonging to the clan which characterize gangster film. In truth, the very core of the script builds on the blood vengeance rules embedded in the Kanun, a set of Albanian laws from the 15th century. But the Nowaks and Kowalskis are not outlaws. In Eastern murder and monetary compensation for killing are allowed but need to be officialized by a qualified lawyer. From this angle, Easter is not less estranging than a Greek Weird Wave cinematic effort. Adamski made a sound debut with a captivating 75-minute-long plain-vanilla and a absurd-tainted battle royale-type film. Eastern was all the rage at the Koszalin Film Debut Festival of Young and Film in 2019.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on May 30, 2021