Starring: Karolina Chapko, Paulina Chapko, Artur Żmijewski, Katarzyna Herman
Directed by: Marcin Solarz
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Oszukane (Deceived) is, unofficially but obviously, based on a dramatic true story. In the early 1980s, Poland was gripped by the tale of girl who had grown-up with the wrong family — the result of a hospital mix-up. Even more incredible was the fact that the misplaced girl had an identical twin who she later met at a student gathering. One family had taken home the baby they assumed to be their newborn daughter, while the other had taken home their newborn their newborn twins, never knowing that one of them wasn’t a twin at all.
Theatrical starlets and real-life sisters Paulina and Karolina Chapko play the reunited siblings in Marcin Solarz’s debut, which has been almost universally panned by critics for its melodramatic, soap-opera narrative and execution.
The tearful road to acceptance and forgiveness on the screen. is anything but convincing and puts Deceived in the front running for most banal film of the year. Perhaps, if the screenwriters had stuck more faithfully to the real life story, which did not have a happy ending, this movie would not have contributed so effectively to the disaffection of domestic moviegoers with Polish cinema.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on June 1, 2013