Fantastic Fest Review: Playground
A harrowing portrait of disaffected Polish youth
By Ashley Moreno, 2:00PM, Mon. Sep. 26, 2016
To call documentarian Bartosz M. Kowalski’s first narrative film, Playground, shocking would be a gross understatement. It’s clearly meant as social criticism, but even so, are such polarizing images warranted? What would a film need to do to justify this level of disturbing violence?
The film’s narrative follows three teens – Gabrysia, Szymek, and Czarek – as they prepare for the last day of school before summer break. It opens with each kid getting ready in the morning, and then heading to class. One of the kids, Gabrysia, is a wealthy girl, who has a crush on Szymek, a less-well-off boy who helps care (in his way) for his bed-ridden father. Czarek, Szymek's best friend, lives in a troubled home. His family is poor, and his mom seems overworked. As the day progresses, Gabrysia decides to tell Szymek how she feels. He doesn’t take the news well, and he invites Czarek, who’s eavesdropping, to help him abuse the girl. Smaller incidents (as the kids prepare for school) foreshadow the film’s dark turn, but Gabrysia’s assault is just the start of it. The film’s ending borders on unwatchable (more than a few viewers in the audience turned away).
The story is based on an actual event 15 years ago, which Kowalski has discussed in interviews. While the film hints at potential reasons for the boys’ behavior – their home situations seem rough, there are advertisements for violent video games in the background of a shopping mall they visit, the adults all seem either aloof or mean (or both) – it doesn’t provide a clear answer. During the introduction at Fantastic Fest, a member of the selection committee suggested a political interpretation, stating that Kowalski has also called this film his reaction to an increasingly right-wing, hostile political environment in Poland – one that leaves him asking, “What kind of example are we setting for the next generation?” That the film feels so much like a documentary punctuates such a question, maybe even points a finger. As if to say: How can you just watch this happen?
While some will undoubtedly find the film too disturbing, it does successfully avoid many of the classic issues with ultra-realistic violence. For example, the violence isn’t used to simply progress the plot. Too often, lazy writers use violence against women or children to ensure we know a character is a seriously bad seed. That’s not the case here. There’s also no cinematic gore. So it certainly doesn’t revel in anything like that. In fact, it would be more accurate to call the film completely joyless. So why see it? It is well-crafted, and it offers an interesting marriage between narrative and documentary techniques. But the most compelling reason to see the film might be so we can have these kinds of conversations.
Fantastic Fest 2016 runs Sept. 22-29 at the Alamo South Lamar. Tickets and info at www.fantasticfest.com, and follow our ongoing coverage at austinchronicle.com/fantastic-fest.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Richard Whittaker, April 14, 2017
April 30, 2019
April 29, 2019
Fantastic Fest 2016, Fantastic Fest, Playground