Leave No Traces
directed by Jan P. Matuszyński, Poland 2021, 160'
Based on facts described in a feature story by Cezary Łazarewicz, Leave No Traces is a monumental film about the murder of Grzegorz Przemyk, a secondary school graduate and son of the opposition poet Barbara Sadowska, who was detained and severely beaten by a Citizens’ Militia (the national police organization of the Polish People’s Republic) patrol in 1983. The only witness to the fatal beating is one of Grzegorz's friends, who decides to fight for justice and give testimony incriminating the militiamen. At first, the state apparatus, including the Ministry of the Interior, downplays the case. However, when over 20,000 people march through the streets of Warsaw following Przemyk's coffin, the authorities decide to use all tools against the witness and the mother of the deceased to discredit them and prevent the only witness from testifying in court.
