Pack of Pain

Though its brutally rapid editing and vivid pain-drenched images make this short film a gruelling experience, it is a brilliant piece of film making.

Director Regdosz and his scriptwriters manage to convey in just 15 minutes more narrative drive, more visceral action and more hints of political, religious and psychological complexity than most films eight times as long.

Set in London of the not-too-distant future, we follow - at breathless pace - the attempts of terminally ill ex-cop Dante to expose the lethal, cynical collaboration between big business (specifically the tobacco industry) and corrupt politicians. From a hide-out in a tiny hotel room to a shoot-out on an office block roof-top, the action never lets up for a second. The Big City is filmed in such a way as to transform present day London into a disturbingly alienated, subtly altered version of itself. Very eerie!

Pawel Regdosz is clearly an extremely talented film-maker; but "Pack of Pain" is very much a guy's film - its (admittedly breathtakingly well staged and shot) fight sequences are so vicious as to make uncomfortable viewing for a woman spectator.

Furthermore, the film's only female character, the tobacco industry spokesperson Monika, is evil and manipulative, with no qualms about entering into a conspiracy with a corrupt Government minister; or about using her seductive powers to corrupt others. When, half-naked, she receives savage retribution at the hands of our terminally ill hero Dante ... are we supposed to cheer?!

And the repeated scenes of Dante coughing up blood are gruesomely explicit too!

I do hope Pawel's next film will avoid all this machismo and misogyny.

Take a pinch of Lars von Trier's "Epidemic". Spice it with no-holds-barred action sequences and graphic visuals straight out of Japanese anime. Stir in a generous helping of the institutional paranoia which fuelled classics like "The Parallax View".

Now you've got some idea where Pack of Pain is coming from.

This is a short film which succeeds because it has large echoes and suggests much greater concerns. You may come away from it scratching your head, wondering just how all these threads fit together - well, who said every mystery should be easily resolved? The best conspiracy theories stay out there in the darkness, growing bigger and bigger until they've absorbed your entire reality - and everyone else's, too.

Pawel Regdosz clearly understands this and, on the current showing, there's a big talent here which is clamouring to make its mark on a much larger canvas.

Small can sometimes be big and beautiful. PACK OF PAIN is a short film with plenty of both. Displaying enough talent to burn the minds eye this is a short film with big ideas ( corrupt politicians in league with an extermination programme) and the guts to display this with visual and aural panache. The soundtrack is awesome with a moment or two of silence that underlines a wonderful assault on the ears. The look of the film,evokes a mix of Asian/Italian cinema with washing blowing in the wind on top of buildings which feels like Bangkok while long coats and brooding looks suggest Leone in spaghetti mode. Even more remarkable is the influence of German expressionism with the main character acting as if he too is as haunted as Nosferatu. This is the cue for the extreme sense of blood that permeates the film. The use of red as a visual motif is strong and vivid ,suggesting the link of blood with life and death. The ending has a stunning visual concept that recalls the type of effect Terence Fisher employed in his B crime thrillers of the late 40s /early 50s. . What is finally remarkable about this stunning looking short with Science Fiction city landscapes right out of Blade Runner is that its tall buildings, victorian gas holders and cranes in the sky and waterway canal are from a barely recognisable London. Using a fraction of the budget of Ridley Scott, the result feels more Polish than English but that is no bad thing.