Medium

Very good horror film from Poland which is quite surprising for one purpose: polish horror movies aren't good. But this one is really an exception. There is good, interesting plot which contains mystery and some occult ingredients. Also inspiring is where the action took place: Sopot City in the early 1930's, right after the Nazis started to rule in Germany. There is good acting, specially the performances by Jerzy Stuhr, Grazyna Szapolowska, Michal Bajor and Wladyslaw Kowalski. Those talented actors took part in probably one of the best polish films of the decade. It's a shame there are no other as good examples of polish entertaining cinema, with exciting idea for an action and with directors like Koprowicz who had a great vision.

This was indeed an interesting Polish Psychological Thriller with little horror elements. THE strangest take on psychic powers you will probably ever see. Filmed like an episode of Masterpiece Theater,

In the good old days of the IMDb message boards, it was possible to discuss a film such as Medium in order to try and figure out what the hell it was all about. Without such a resource available to me, I'm left rather confused by what I just watched.

As far as I could gather, the plot goes something like this: in 1930s Poland, a powerful medium controls a group of unwary individuals to re-enact past events that will enable him to continue his life of immortality. Meanwhile, a fortune teller and his psychic assistant try to help those involved and a policeman discovers his role in the scheme of things.

That might seem simple enough, but the manner in which the film is told leaves plenty of unanswered questions, most notably 'Where does the medium find the doppelgangers necessary for his arcane ritual?' (are they reincarnations doomed to repeat events for all eternity?) and 'What the hell do the turtles have to do with things?'.

Of course, there is the possibility that the answers to these questions, and others, were lost in translation (I watched a subtitled copy of the film), so I won't be too harsh with my rating despite being baffled for most of the time...

It's one of the first Polish films that is fully devoted to occult and parapsychology. It's pretty difficult in reception and it's definitely one of these forgotten movies. Action takes place in Sopot, where Wagner is some kind of fortuneteller and his sister is a medium. They detect the presence of a few people which are guided by insanely powerful medium. Those people meet in Sopot (where there is famous Polish pier shown later) but while controlled they are unaware what they did or what they were doing in that location. Later, an investigation carried out by detective and his deputy that sworn his loyalty to Nazis, results in conclusion that this is repetition of a cycle in which... The movie is accompanied by excellent music which enhances the atmosphere of the mystery. Interestingly, casual dialogues are without any background music. In addition to that we got some historical background when Hitler started to rule in Germany along with the party of the Nazis (NSDAP). To summarize, we receive a very original Polish production, however it will be difficult to examine for those who don't like movies concerning psychological things rather than gore and action. A must see for Polish horror lovers and mystery films.

Medium (1985): The Free City of Danzig (Gdansk), 1933, shortly after the Nazis have won control of the city government. An eager young Nazi Detective Sergeant is intent on replacing his DI. The DI is a tad disheveled and has taken to sleeping on the beach, drinking too much and having memory lapses. That's the most mundane thing in this film though. A powerful Medium (Mage) is performing a Ritual, bringing people together to reenact events which occurred in the past. A dark film but not all of the darkness comes from the Occult elements, the Nazis are consolidating power and their Brownshirts control the streets. Some gruesome scenes and plenty of psychological horror as the Inspector, with the assistance of lesser psychics, attempts to comprehend the mysterious events which are taking place. Writer/Director Jacek Koprowicz delivers a worthy addition to the Polish Horror Film Canon. On Netflix. 8/10.