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6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Dziesieciu z Pawiaka remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for black-and-white historical dramas that don't mind taking their sweet time, you might actually like Dziesieciu z Pawiaka. But if you’re looking for a snappy, modern pacing or clear-cut action sequences, you’re going to be bored out of your mind within twenty minutes. This isn't exactly a popcorn flick.
The film dives straight into the messy business of 1905 Poland. The tension is thick, maybe a little too thick at points, where people just stand around whispering in dimly lit rooms. You can almost smell the stale tobacco and the nervous sweat on the actors' brows.
There is this one scene where a character is trying to hide a document, and the camera lingers on his trembling hand for way too long. It’s a tiny detail, but it tells you more about his fear than any dialogue could. It’s imperfect, sure, but it’s real.
The pacing is a bit of a nightmare. Sometimes the movie just stops dead to let a character stare into the middle distance. It feels like the director forgot to yell 'cut' and just let the reel keep spinning.
Watching this made me think about A Soul Enslaved in a weird, roundabout way. Both films deal with people trapped in systems they can’t break, but this one feels much colder. The Tsarist presence feels like a heavy blanket over the whole production.
I noticed the way they frame the crowds. The extras in the background look like they wandered off a different set entirely, sometimes just standing there waiting for the scene to end. It gives the whole thing a strange, slightly hollow feeling that I actually kind of liked.
It’s not perfect. It’s not even trying to be. It’s just a snapshot of a very specific, very angry moment in history. Sometimes that’s enough. Other times, I just wanted someone to speed things up a little bit. 🎞️
