Corporal
Wydra is the designated executioner in his Polish resistance unit. He is a sensitive soul, yet very good at his
job. This is the contradictory nature of
war and it will only get more treacherous for the soldier in Marcin Krzyształowicz’s
Manhunt, which screens tomorrow as part of
the 2012 World Film Festival of Montreal.
Captured
National Socialists are lucky if Wydra is the man taking them out. He is not a sadist or a vengeance taker. He is a freedom fighter with a grim task to
complete. We get a good feel for the complicated
man at work as the film opens. His next
assignment though, will be considerably thornier. He is to go into town and bring back a
prominent businessman turned informant, the hard way or the easy way, for trial
and presumed execution. However, Wydra
has some decidedly personal history with the thoroughly compromised Henryk
Kondolewicz.
Meanwhile,
a member of the unit has betrayed Wydra’s comrades, funneling information
through the very snitch he has been dispatched to deal with. The Corporal will be too late to help his
fallen brothers-in-arms, but he will be able to put together the pieces and
possibly dispense some retribution.
In
fact, Manhunt is a bit of a narrative
jigsaw puzzle, constantly flashing backwards and forwards, providing more
context with each successive time shift.
Actually the crosses and double-crosses are relatively straight forward,
but the existential depth of Wydra’s character really distinguishes Manhunt from thematically related WWII
dramas.
While
not completely dissimilar to the grizzled Home Army veteran he played in Wojtek
Smarzowski’s Rose, Marcin Dorociński is
riveting nonetheless as the massively brooding Wydra. Chillingly convincing when getting down to business,
he also quite compellingly hints at the pain eating his Wydra’s soul. He dominates the film and that’s fine.
