Psy / Pigs (1992) dir. Wladyslaw Pasikowski

Franz (B. Linda), a former officer of the Security Service disbanded in 1990, after verification, joins the police together with his colleagues. Abandoned by his wife, the daughter of a former deputy minister, he became bitter and distanced himself even more from women and the state. Working as a cop, attempts to stop a gang of car thieves lead to a tragedy, his colleagues die. Franz turns to his former Security Service friend for help. Soon, it turns out that Olo (M. Kondrat) most likely works for the criminals. The friends find themselves on opposite sides of the barricade, Franz’s young mistress crosses the line too. A cult film by Władysław Pasikowski, which met the expectations of the Polish audience and made Bogusław Linda, an outstanding actor of the cinema of moral anxiety, an icon of Polish cinema of the transformation period. He created a new model of masculinity – a misogynist tough guy. At that time, such a model could help to release the humiliation that was part of the experience of Polish men under socialism and at the beginning of political changes in the country. Although the film did not fit into Polish auteur cinema, and at the same time it resembled gangster films, the production triumphed at the 1992 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia: best direction, actor (Bogusław Linda), supporting actress (Agnieszka Jaskółka), music (Michał Lorenc), editing (Wanda Zeman and Zbigniew Niciński). Importantly, the film turned out to be a box office hit too. The story of Franz and other characters is continued in “Psy 2. Ostatnia krew“ (1994) and “Psy 3. W imię zasad“ (2020).