Pilecki's story is surely one of the most incredible, impressive, and heartbreaking ones in the history of World War II, certainly on the European side.
I look at it with the same amazement and admiration as I did at the story of Desmond Doss.
People like those two only grace the pages of history sparsely and in its most horrific chapters.
Now, the reason I titled my review "Not For The Uninformed" is that "Pilecki's Report" tells a story already very well known to Polish audiences.
Everyone in Poland knows Pilecki's story (and if they don't, they sure as hell should get to know it most ricky-tick!) so, for someone outside of Poland or with limited knowledge of World War II history in that part of the world, THIS FILM MAY AND PROBABLY WILL BE CONFUSING.
I would say don't watch it without taking a look at a few documentaries or reading up on Pilecki first...although that might somewhat spoil the movie for you.
Or you can look up more information on Pilecki afterwards instead. The choice is yours.
All I'm trying to tell you is that the movie was made with the assumption that people watching it already knew the subject matter.
But hey, wasn't it the case with "Titanic" too!?
Everyone in the world knew the damn thing sank but we all still gasped at Cameron's depiction of the events and the plot within the film, didn't we?
The movie itself, as far as the filmmaking side of things is concerned, is outstanding, especially the cinematography and lighting.
The music (by Michal Lorenc), although subtle most of the time, is also worth mentioning.
Acting and production design are fantastic as well.
A great movie overall.
I personally couldn't find anything in it to complain about. But then again, I know Pilecki's story and I'm familiar with World War II history of Poland well enough to not need any background to the way the story is told by the director/writer.
He made the movie assuming the audience was already educated on European WWII history and I'm sure he deliberately wrote and structured the movie to first and foremost target Polish audience. And that's the way you have to look at it.
If you don't have a reasonable grasp of what was happening in Europe between 1933 and 1945, and then, specifically in Poland, between 1939 and 1945 and beyond, you may be lost a little.
But here again, most historical movies will be confusing to anyone whose knowledge about any period of history is superficial at best.
If you customarily go for goofy superhero crap for your dose of cinema, I suggest you don't even touch heavy material like "Pilecki's Report" - you'll only waste your time and complain the movie was boring and confusing afterwards.
