The Closed Circuit (2013) User Reviews

Frightening real life story

[Maziun · 8/10 · 20 June 2014]

*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS This movie is based on true story that happened in Poland. A powerful district attorney with his friend from Internal Revenue put innocent 3 businessmen in jail on completely false accusations. The DA and his friend from IR wanted to take over the fortune of the successful company . They fabricated evidence of bribe and accused 3 innocent men of being a part of mafia. They destroyed the life of 3 innocent men because of pure greed.

This is not a story of people who were failed by the system . This is the story of the people that were crushed by the representatives of law. This is story that REALLY happened. A story of country where the same system that was supposed to protect people destroys them in the name of law.

The first 30 minutes of movie is rather boring. Thankfully the movie after that gets interesting. The acting is solid and the portrayal of all characters in the movie is far from typical Hollywood black or white morality. The movie lacks the emotional impact of director's Ryszard Bugajski's brilliant movie "Przesłuchanie" ("Interrogation"). It is however a bitter and memorable story that tells a lot about modern Poland. I do recommend however this movie to all viewers . This is also universal story about the flaws of democracy and a warning how easy it is to become moral bankrupt.

I give "Układ zamknięty" 8/10.

Entrepreneurship in Poland

[hof-4 · 4/10 · 20 February 2018]

The subject: Three Polish businessmen are starting a state-of-the-art factory in Gdansk (the factory is, in fact, a maquiladora of a Danish company taking advantage of low Polish wages). They are waylaid by the evil schemes of Janusz, a corrupt procurator who accuses them of various crimes, among them money laundering.

Villain Janusz is straight out of a superhero movie; he lives in a gloomy, Addams-style Gothic mansion, enjoys hunting and force feeds his hapless family the remains of his animal victims (huge stuffed beasts adorn the dark paneled walls of his house; he does the taxidermy job himself). His evilness is rooted in Communist oriented activism during his student days (there is a passing nod to the now fashionable meme Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism).

In contrast, the Businessmen Superheroes (especially Marek) do much macho posturing and swaggering and their pecadilloes (such as serial philandering) are dismissed with Nietzschean understanding. At the end of the movie they receive the highest award, a pat in the back from their Danish master, who invites them to work in Denmark, where "people aren't punished by their ideas or entrepreneurial spirit." This line, delivered in English, caused some problems in Poland, since it implies "In Poland, people are punished by their ideas or entrepreneurial spirit."

As for the film itself: good production values, uneven acting and dynamic direction; it has the look and feel of an American TV movie. The Polish title translates to "closed system" rather than "closed circuit."