Symmetry

Colour, 35 mm
Poland, 2003, 99 min
Section: Official Selection

Synopsis

Lukasz is remanded into custody awaiting trial for assault. The testimony of a mentally disabled old woman is decisive: she has fingered him as the perpetrator. He shares a cell with six men who are suspected of crimes committed in the heat of passion or under provocation. In vain does the lawyer hired by Lukasz’s mother try to exonerate his client. The intelligent and unassertive Lukasz finds it difficult to bear cohabitation with the social and intellectual hodgepodge of men, and the lack of privacy. In defiance of the humiliating circumstances and repeated, gruelling conflicts with his fellow inmates, he tries to maintain a sense of human
dignity and an awareness of his identity. Lukasz’s experience – mercilessly degrading his character – is expressed with harsh authenticity and can be taken as a compelling argument in discussions on the state of the Polish judicial and prison systems.

About the director

Konrad Niewolski (b. 1972, Warsaw) followed university studies in physics with enrolment in the School of Economics, where he specialized in the field of administrative and international relations (1995). He has an interest in psychiatry, philosophy, theology, genetics, Egyptology and extreme sports, and is involved professionally in snowboarding. He debuted with D.I.L. (2002), a brutal tale of the drug trade, for which he won Main Prize at the 1ST Festival of Independent Film in Gdynia. The impulse for making Symmetry (Symetria, 2003) came from his own personal experiences in police custody.