For starters: a historical note. This movie was made when the so-called "small stabilization" ("mała stabilizacja," a term coined by the poet Tadeusz Rozewicz, whose brother Stanislaw, incidentally, is an acclaimed film director) was still in action, though the under-invested Polish economy was already faltering. This period was one of relative betterment of living conditions for most of the Polish people, yet the betterment was far from that which was the lived experience of people outside the communist bloc. As it was, the economy was still too unstable to perform well in the post-war circumstances and people were gathering strength for an upcoming battle with the system, occurring in December 1970 (events partially portrayed in Andrzej Wajda's "Man of Iron"). It is also good to know that directly before the student upheaval which happened in the West in 1968, Poland encountered a wave of obscure anti-Semitism, which forced many Poles of Jewish origin out of the country. Here, then, is the fruit of the loom, so to speak: "Hydrozagadka," a movie about the mysterious disappearance of water from Warsaw taps. The case, completely unintelligible for the capital's police, ends up being taken over by a Clark Kent-like figure, super-hero known as "Ace" (As). Through a course of more or less absurd obstacles, he manages to uncover the secret plot of a mad, scientist that wants to threaten the existing order (with the financial help of a "maharadjah"). That's not all, of course it isn't; but I'm not sure a non-Polish speaking viewer can grasp half of the subtleties at play herein. Language plays a significant part in the movie and I wish the English translators did their best to render it understandable to someone not acquainted with the Polish communist newspeak and associated double-talks.
