Snow White and Russian Red

Do you recognize this country? It's Poland seen as "on acid." A melodramatically swollen moon rises over the rusted viaduct and a monstrous hamburger adorns a shabby restaurant. A neighborhood festival pulses among the concrete housing block units, whose main attraction is an aggressive disco-polo concert of imbecilic sexist hits. This is the world of Andrzej "Strong" Robakowski, who is an apoplectic brute and junkie, a thug. After a breakup, Strong wanders the neighborhood and experiences various adventures, or rather their pathetic and grotesque facsimiles. Xawery Żuławski's film is based on Dorota Masłowska's debut novel. Like the book, it is a satire of modern Poland, which appears on screen as a land of cheapness, rudeness and stupidity, one that is equally repulsive as it is strangely fascinating.