Bogowie

Had time to watch such convincing actor and what an inspiring story as well.

Magnificent acting by the protagonist and stunning balance of ethics (due to sensitive matter), humor, seriousness , drama, comic.

I remember thinking during seeing this film that when someone is just brilliant and really likes and believes what he does, he is unstoppable. And moreover since we currently are in the era of startups, the film reveals a perspective of a Medical Clinic startup in an era when there is no context for incubation but rather hostility towards individual ambitions.

Food for thoughts, inspiration and heart.

Highly recommended

I came across this under-the-radar film today, read the only review already on IMDb, heard from a Polish friend that it was quite good and couldn't really find anything else on it before going to see it.

I was expecting it to be good, but it turned out to be possibly the most enjoyable film I've seen all year (I see at least 30-40 new releases each year, and with a reasonable degree of research before watching, almost never see a terrible film - the only awful film I've seen in a theatre in the last two years is The Counselor where I didn't research the film and went in because of the cast - never again!).

A biopic made in a typical European style - understated drama, lots of subtle as well as some black humour and emotional depth. Riveting from start to finish, it is the story of the man who pioneered the first heart transplant in Poland after wading through the obstacles thrown at him by a sceptical medical fraternity and lumbering bureaucracy (he later went on to become a prominent politician though the film focuses purely on the events leading up to the event that made him famous in Poland).

Tomasz Kot is brilliant playing Religa, and the entire supporting cast are very good. There is a reasonable amount of medical jargon used (I was following English subtitles) which worked for me as a fan of medical dramas.

The depiction of Poland and life there in the 80s is very well done - there are subtle homages to the period setting (through the soundtrack for example) but you never get the feeling the director is getting carried away with the setting and the events of the story remain the main focus.

Technically the film is very well shot and edited (some of the surgery scenes are fascinating in their detail) and the script is excellent. Highly recommended!

The music is very good, the male actors are also very vivid, but the decadence of frustration is a little worse. There are still many unsolved problems in human life. This road needs understanding and courage.

I did not expect much from the movie and only decided to watch it out of respect to Zbigniew Religa. The only drawback is footage from real surgeries on open heart, and this may be too graphic for some viewers to stomach. The viewer will find it hard to observe the action from the back seat as the whole plot evolves like Bolero by Ravel.

It starts rather slow, in casual manner, just to turn up a notch every once a while. The production crew faced quite a challenge since most viewers knew what happened in real life, and what the final outcome was. In this respect the challenge was met with a great performance, especially by the main character. Just like in Bolero the movie ends with a high note, leaving the audience in awe.

Breathtakingly humanistic film. Hyper-realistic camera and set design. Editing work - fast, full of surprising moments, rhythmic just like the pulsating heart of a human on the surgical table or a spectator in the darkens of movie theater. Convincing presence of the main character and cast. Directorial psychological excellence in audience involvement in the struggle to save a life and the overcoming of so many aspects of human believes and realities. Catholic-Atheism mitt the Hippocratic oath. Very accrued description of the 1980's Poland without political overtones. Movable film-making. Resurrection of the Polish film school excellence and a new vision of the old world.