Plac zabaw

This film was loosely based on the real life kidnapping and brutal torture/murder in England, of 2-year old James Bulger in 1993...by two 10-year old boys. The end footage of the CCTV video, of the two boys walking with the child, is really how it happened and the rest of the movie, although filmed at a distance, depicts the horrible things they did to this poor boy. He was beaten, tortured, sodomized and bludgeoned to death. More details surrounding the case can be found with a simple internet search... RIP precious James...

Well, were do I even begin...

For starters, yes, the film becomes quite disturbing in the end, but the build up before the disturbing part is very slow and kinda goes nowhere. I guess the point of 3/4 of the film was to introduce us the kids, to show that they are basically usual children, doing children's stuff while being cruel at times. That's the whole premise of the 'Playground' as I see it - sometimes (seemingly) perfectly normal kids can do awful things. And they do, sadly.

The very slow build up is actually fine with me. I haven't seen a lot of Polish films, let alone the modern ones, so it was interesting to see how fellow Eastern Europeans live. The cinematography is just competent, but that's good enough and acting is surprisingly good, especially for such young kids. Basically there's 3 main characters: Gabrysia - a girl from a wealthy family, an exemplary student, yet a bit social awkward, Szymek - a boy from a somewhat poorer family, popular in school and Czarek - a boy from a lower-class family. We follow them throughout the day, witnessing them doing daily routine and having anger issues, and then the climax happens. Or what seems to be a climax at first. Then the film pulls out a twist and hits you on your head with the real one. Hope it doesn't count as a spoiler.

I like how the final scene was shot: you witness the events through surveillance cameras or from a distance. You already suspect what's about to happen, you don't want it to happen, yet feel all the more helpless, observing it from afar. The final minutes will most likely make you shudder, and it's really a testament how you don't have to go full gore to invoke strong repulsive emotions.

At the end, it would have made for a great short film: in this current form it might be a tad too sluggish. The plot twist feels kinda cheap, and the finale sort of rolls out of nowhere, but maybe it was the whole point. The violence for no reason feels all the more terrifying, especially done by children. 'Plac Zabaw' is not perfect, but worth your time if you're interested in Eastern European cinema or you from the 'disturbing movies' crowd, even though it's not the most disturbing flick by far.

I'm glad I had the chance to watch this one time. I never want to watch it again.

Just watched Plac Zabaw (Playground), and I'm still reeling from an ending that I didn't see coming. I went into this movie blind, but expected something dark, mainly from the ad art etc. But the final act of this movie is just heavy, brutal and stunning. But it's handled so delicately, so matter of factly, that even that becomes disturbing.

Plac Zabaw is a horror film in the true sense.

... but is it good? Well it's very well made. And you can argue that the acting is really good. It almost feels too real. As in documentary real and painful in a way that you are inside the whole thing, watching some despicable characters and some very awful things happening too. Of course kids will be kids as they say, but how much can they get away with? And how much or how far do they go? It's not that the movie has answers to all the questions.

We have a couple of kids who have their own worries and their own lifes. We get to see how they are at home and how they act when they are at school (and with friends). So while I cannot stress out enough, that this movie might feel slow and dragging to some, not to mention a bit dark (to put it mildly), it is also very well made. So if you are into arthouse and real life cinema ... this is it.