Petla (2020)

Petla: Directed by Patryk Vega. With Antoni Królikowski, Katarzyna Warnke, Piotr Stramowski, Maciej Zacharzewski. Based on a true story about a 2nd generation cop who has designs on becoming a detective but his goals descend into bribery, corruption and addiction.

“Two things you will learn if you make it through to the end: u0026quot;Petlau0026quot; rather aptly means u0026quot;nooseu0026quot; and that this is based on the true story of aspiring police officer Daniel Sniezak (Antoni Królikowski) who follows his father into the force. He is determined to be a detective, a position that requires that he get down and dirty on the street where he meets all sorts – including a pair of twins who stab him. In order to escape prosecution, they promise him some big names to arrest that will further his career. It isnu0026#39;t long before he is working with them more regularly, pulling in bigger fish that his TV-loving boss laps ups – regardless of the authenticity of the crime or the arrest and whilst sleeping with just about anyone who can be useful to him – including the local prosecutor. When Sniezek goes to the Ukraine, he becomes part of a much larger drug running/human trafficking/blackmail plot that ultimately blurs the lines between his duty, his job and his young wife and his rapidly developing sex and cocaine addictions only makes things worse – and the by now jilted prosecutor is out for revenge…. The first half hour of this is not bad – a sort of compendium of sketches, some of which are actually quite funny (intentionally or not) and the star is quite a charismatic actor – as he demonstrated in u0026quot;Bad Boyu0026quot; (2020) – but it pretty quickly descends into a poorly written, shockingly directed sleaze-fest as virtually everyone from the priest to the politician ends up in their brothel u0026quot;Imperiumu0026quot; being filmed, entrapped and exploited. All in all, it passes the time but it isnu0026#39;t great and is almost entirely carried by the cheeky charm of the star – he has something about him that forgives much of the mediocrity of this rather silly thriller with an ending that is pretty inevitable. Aim low and and you might enjoy it – but I mean low….”