A very poor, even homeless, cousin of "Crash."
It's as if, over a decade after David Cronenberg's famous film, Polish filmmakers tried to make their own provincial version of the drama, and everything fell through (except for one). These films are very different in terms of plot - one takes place in the metropolis, the other in the deep countryside (so the characters' social classes are very different), but they share a perverse nature, morbid desire, and a focus on dark eroticism. Therefore, although the plots differ, it is precisely in this film that I see the inspiration for "The Unmoved Mover."
Let's start with the fact that Cronenberg's film is well-made and engaging. What's more, it was shot in the mid-1990s and fits the era (regardless of how we view it today). In 2008, "The Unmoved Mover," fetishizing the female body to the point of absurdity, becomes grotesque.
The second major problem is that the film's plot would barely suffice for a short film. The hour-and-a-half film consists of long segments, interrupted by outbursts of rage by the General (Jan Frycz) and the harassment of an employee (Marieta Zukowska), filmed mostly in lingerie. There's plenty of subtle eroticism in the film, but it's usually quite tacky and off-putting.
The only thing that sets this film apart is its almost documentary-like portrayal of how the police and justice system are utterly failing to address the problem of sexual violence. This is a global problem (the excellent French film "La syndicaliste" illustrates this perfectly), but in conservative countries (e.g., Eastern Europe), it's much more serious.
And for that reason alone, I'm giving it a second star-it's an important issue, though it's only briefly touched upon here.
