Szczurolap

An excellent polish documentary about a rat exterminator. The man talks about his job which is to extinguish rat populations. Additionally scientists report about the intelligence and the social structures rats have. Therefor the rat catcher has to use some subtle strategies and methods: first he wins the their trust before he can wipe the whole rat population out.

The film lets the rat catcher tell about his job and adds rat test facts of scientists. Morals and interpretations are left to the viewers. This creates a strange and intensive atmosphere.

This film, as many polish documentaries of that period, offers strong sub level interpretations.

P.S.: The German film "Ausgerechnet Zoe" uses a reference to this film in order to show the concept of "hope".

I saw this in 1986 at the Academy's short form documentary competition and have been searching for it ever since. I had talked it up to documentary fans for years afterward but no one could ever locate it. Thanks to the Polish Camerimage gathering of 2009, a lady tracked it down it for me. Hands down, this is the greatest single short-form (half an hour) documentary I have ever seen. Basically a structure like ALIEN only with close up shots of rodents interacting in ways that look like dancers - you can nearly hear them speak. How the cameraman got these shots and and how the whole things builds to an extraordinary climax is unique - especially considering all is true. Many of these shots are filmed in very low-light near dark conditions and I would guess it took weeks to get them all. The film is not put together like a thriller - it is shot and edited exactly as it happened. "Grizzly Man" is the closest comparison because of how human and animal psychology were matched. This one is similar. Except that man versus rats is a far scarier scenario and the enemy is craftier than any bear. This ought to be available to anyone interested in ecological opponents.