Le masseur

I really found this to be a magical movie. It had a very mysterious and lyrical quality to it, and it was full of surprises. Wonderful characters, beautiful dialogue and a tad of a magical realist quality. And a peek into affluent Polish life.

A wonderful performance by Alec Utgoff, who really stole the show. I really liked this movie.

Really enjoyed this film and loved the music score. Can any wonderfully enlightened person please tell me the music used for the cabaret/dance and then the magic act later in the movie? Many thanks.

A fascinating collection of quirky people, intriguing stories, social commentary and a mystery surrounding the masseur and spiritual healer Zenia (Alec Utgoff) who seems to have some special powers after surviving the Chernobyl disaster as a child. The central mystery keeps you intrigued, while the film explores the stories of the wealthy fenced-off neighbourhood (a very good Polish cast). I really liked the fairy-tale feeling of the film and the masterfully done dream-like hypnosis scenes (which looked amazing). The film doesn't feel larger than the sum of it parts though - the individual various elements work very well but in the end you don't necessarily get a satisfying pay-off to it all, it just drifts off like a dream. A worth effort from the Polish cinema.

Beautiful fairytale with mesmerasing structure, story and acting. I loved especially the chernobyl thread.

I saw this film in my local cinema during a limited UK theatrical release, and immediately ordered a copy of the Polish import DVD so that I could see it again.

It is a very hypnotic piece of work in which the lead character, a travelling massage therapist called Zhenia (Utgoff), visits the houses of residents in a reasonably well-to-do, gated community - all seemingly dysfunctional people living detatched lives in near-identical detached houses.

Zhenia quietly dispenses therapy and a listening ear, along with occasional hypnosis to supplement the treatment. While his clients experience hypnotic dreams, he enjoys the stillness in their homes and tries to understand what makes them all tick, whilst just about managing to avoid getting too emotionally involved. He too searces his own memories, especially of his mother, who died as a result of radiation exposure in his home town of Pripyat due to the nearby Chernobyl disaster. He remembers the clouds of radioactive debris, which his childhood memories render in his dreams like snow.

But something isn't right, and in the background Zhenia is being stalked by officials, who are aware that his work permit is forged - something we see him achieve in the opening scenes of the film. He finally brings a suitably mystical conclusion to his story with the help of a favour he does for one of his former clients.

Utgoff gives a hypnotic performance, bringing an other-worldly feel to the character, and the supporting cast all create fascinating, rounded characters that inhabit the strange community he works in. The cinematography is excellent, with a chilly, desaturated palette that enhances the unsettling atmosphere of the narrative.

The film has mostly Polish and Russian dialogue, with very clear, subtitles in English in both the UK theatrical release and on the Polish issue DVD.

This is one for film lovers who (like me) enjoy a story that takes its time in the telling, and it will leave you pinching yourself at the end to check that you've not been dreaming.