Autsajder

Sometimes, there's just no escaping politics. Even if you're an outsider like Franek, an art student who tells his friend, a support of the Solidarity underground movement: Life doesn't interest me. It's the winter of 1981, the beginning of martial law. Franek isn't involved in opposition activities. Everything changes, however, when he stays out past curfew one night. A few words too many as the police check his identification, and he's arrested. His situation worsens when the police search his home and find opposition leaflets that his friend gave. Things get political after all. In this film, set inside the stifling confines of a prison, Adam Sikora (Expelled, competition entry at the 9th New Horizons; The Giant’s Return, 17th New Horizons), revisits one of the key themes of his work: the need for alienation and life outside the mainstream. The historical context lends this attitude a rebellious tone. The boy's individualism has an element of conformism, but reality, armed with irony and chance, forces him to validate his stance. Franek's transformation, his re-entry into life, is portrayed convincingly by Łukasz Sikora, the director's son.