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The brutal regime of early 1980s Poland is explored through a fictionalised version of the true story of student Grzegorz Przemyk (Mateusz Górski), who was beaten to death by the state militia in 1983. The way the murder happens, like a bolt from the blue, is just the first shock in a film that repeatedly shows us just how much energy despotic regimes can be prepared to expend in order to achieve the result that they want.

Grzegorz is simply hanging out with his friend Jurek Popiel (Tomasz Ziętek), when a bit of horsing about too far sees them approached by the police. When Grzegorz – who is the son of opposition firebrand and poet Barbara Sadowska (Sandra Korzeniak) – refuses to show his ID. Despite being something that should no longer be compulsory after the suspension of martial law, the pair are nevertheless bundled off to the police...

An account of a murder in early 1980s Warsaw by communist-era police mixes John le Carré-ish intrigue with a documentary-like detachment

This well-intentioned Polish drama is based on actual events: the notorious beating to death in 1983 of 18-year-old Grzegorz Przemyk in a Warsaw police station, a crime covered up at the highest level of government. Film-maker Jan P Matuszynski recounts the incident in meticulous, exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) detail. His film is intelligent and worthwhile but feels a bit weighed down by the desire to do justice to history.

It begins in high spirits, with two pals larking about in a Warsaw square, Grzegorz (Mateusz Górski) and Jurek (Tomasz Ziętek); when police demand to see the pair’s ID, Grzegorz refuses – he knows his rights. His mum is Barbara Sadowska, a poet and outspoken critic of the communist government. At the station, he is brutally beaten up. At one...

New Europe Film Sales has closed more deals for “Leave No Traces,” from Polish director Jan P. Matuszyński (“The Last Family”), which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival and will represent Poland in the 2022 Academy Awards race.

Produced by Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” pic has sold to Estonia (Estin Film), Slovakia (Slovak Film Clubs Assn.), former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Portugal (Films4You) and Spain (Filmin).

New Europe previously sealed deals for the film in France (Memento Films Distribution), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), U.K. and Ireland (Modern Films), Lithuania (Scanorama), Hungary (Mozinet), Greece (Cinobo), Sweden (Lucky Dogs) and Czech Republic (Aero).

Set in Warsaw in the 1980s, “Leave No Traces” is based on the real-life story of a young man (Tomasz Ziętek) who witnesses the fatal beating of his friend (Mateusz Górski) by the police. Determined to testify about the killing in court,...

The film screened in competition at Venice and is now at the BFI London Film Festival.

Modern Films has picked up UK and Ireland rights to Jan P. Matuszyński’s Venice competition title Leave No Traces from New Europe Film Sales.

The film is now screening at the BFI London Film Festival and is Poland’s entry to the best international film Oscar.

New Europe has also closed deals for the film in Hungary (Mozinet), Greece (Cinobo), Sweden (Lucky Dogs) and Czech Republic (Aero).

Leave No Traces is the second feature from Polish director Matuszyński following The Last Family. It...

“Leave No Marks” would be a more apt translation from the Polish title of “Leave No Traces,” referring as it does to a horrifying command from one police officer to another, heard early on in this marathon fact-based drama: “Hit the stomach so you leave no marks, not on the back.” They’re in the middle of administering a merciless, unprovoked beating — a hard rain of combat boots and handheld batons — to a very soft target in 18-year-old student Grzegorz Przemyk, holding nothing back but acute physical evidence of their ire, even as the victim’s stunned best friend looks on. Those missing marks, or traces, are only the first deception in the state’s protracted, punishing efforts to disprove what they know really happened, and Jan P. Matuszyński’s film unravels the conspiracy with earnest, exhaustive fury.

It’s a true-crime story that could be dramatized with equal power as a tight,...

From their first moments onscreen, it’s evident no good is going to come to teenagers Jurek (Tomasz Zietek) and Grzegorz (Mateusz Górski). Jan P. Matuszyński’s unsparingly bleak period feature Leave No Traces (Żeby nie było śladów) — based on the real-life police beating, in Poland circa 1983, of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk — opens with a complex single shot that ominously captures the calm before the storm.

Grzegorz and Jurek wake up in the former’s bedroom, gray light streaming through the window, a pet turtle crawling across the floor, the friends’ idle chitchat mundane to a ...

From their first moments onscreen, it’s evident no good is going to come to teenagers Jurek (Tomasz Zietek) and Grzegorz (Mateusz Górski). Jan P. Matuszyński’s unsparingly bleak period feature Leave No Traces (Żeby nie było śladów) — based on the real-life police beating, in Poland circa 1983, of high school student Grzegorz Przemyk — opens with a complex single shot that ominously captures the calm before the storm.

Grzegorz and Jurek wake up in the former’s bedroom, gray light streaming through the window, a pet turtle crawling across the floor, the friends’ idle chitchat mundane to a ...