Leave no Traces, the boy and the regime

1983: In the authoritarian Polish Republic led by Wojciech Jaruzelski, high school student Grzegorz Przemyk (Mateusz Górski) dies because of the brutal beatings suffered by agents of the government militia. The only witness is Jurek (Tomasz Ziêtek), who for this very reason becomes a dangerous “public enemy” of the State.

Żeby nie było śladów (international title: Leave No Traces) is Jan P. Matuszynski’s second feature (from the novel by Cezary Łazarewicz) after Ostatnia rodzina (2016, presented at the Locarno Film Festival) and both are based on real events. Matuszynski’s debut is a road trip across late Poland as well and tells the life of the music critic, journalist and translator Tomasz Berksiński and his family (his mother Zofia and his father, the painter Zdzisław Berksiński) set in Warsaw in the 1970s.

Matuszynski’s first directorial experience was the short film Razem (2006), followed by some remarkable documentaries (Niebo, Deep Love, Kolaudacja). Leave No Traces shows, according to the Director of Venice 78 Alberto Barbera, that «political cinema is not dead».

The actual Przemyk case particularly shocked Polish public opinion (and not only). He was the son of the poet and opponent of the regime Barbara Sadowska, the young man who suffered the beating that two days later caused his death while he was celebrating his graduation with some friends.

It was 12 May 1983. Italian singer Pierangelo Bertoli wrote a song about this event called Warsaw, whose verses speak clearly: «They killed a boy of twenty years/ they killed him out of anger or fear/ because he had in his eyes that sincere gaze/ because he was the force of the future».

 Leave No Traces

Żeby nie było śladów, Poland/France/Cech Republic, 2021. Directed by Jan P. Matuszynski. With Tomasz Ziętek, Sandra Korzeniak, Jacek Braciak, Robert Więckiewicz, Sebastian Pawlak, Agnieszka Grochowska, Mateusz Górski. Lenght 2 h e 40’

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