Written and directed by Kasia Adamik, co-written by Sandra Buchta and Lucinda Coxon, a British professor witnesses a student’s murder by secret police in 1981 Warsaw under martial law. She becomes a target while running through the city’s streets, eventually forced to stop and take a stand. Starring: Lesley Manville, Zofia Wichłacz, Andrzej Konopka, Sascha Ley, Tom Burke and Rhianne Barreto.
If a film stars Lesley Manville, it will always be inherently worth watching because the way she can command the screen is forever entertaining. Especially when she gets to play characters like Joan in Winter of the Crow where she can be very forthright, sarcastic, and a touch abrasive but also determined and resourceful. Manville starts out with this classic severity which is then challenged as she’s sent down this perilous road and seeks to reach the end of it in a morally righteous manner. It’s an excellent performance, and she’s supported well by Zofia Wichłacz as Alina but most of the roles outside of Joan are somewhat limited.
The outline of the plot is a good one, it’s a quintessential example of someone finding themselves in over their head, scrambling and having to fight to come out alive. In that sense it works, it has a decent intensity, and its sense of fear and risk are solid but as the story progresses, it weakens. It’s a strange combination of the story feeling like it gets increasingly messy but at the same time that very little is happening. As well as that Cold War setting not having a great deal to add in today’s landscape.
It’s also a shame that they didn’t take the time to further explore the psychiatric angle, given that it is mentioned frequently in Winter of the Crow. In that respect the film could have potentially made a better miniseries, to give viewers the time to get to know the characters and their backgrounds more strongly to help those later moments land with a bigger impact and build more genuine emotion.
Another part of its struggle to build momentum and heighten the energy is the direction and cinematography (from Tomasz Naumiuk), they’re solid work but don’t go beyond that. They’re entertaining to begin with but eventually they’re just hitting the same notes over and over. Especially with it having a rather dour palette, it feels appropriate for the era and setting but they lack power and don’t allow its intensity to evolve and hold your attention effectively.
Winter of the Crow has a good concept and is led by a great performance by the wonderful Lesley Manville, but it simply can’t manage to sustain itself all the way to the finish line. It initially builds a good atmosphere, with tension and suspense, but when that then has nowhere to go, it wanes. Ultimately, meaning that while everything does technically work, it doesn’t evolve or intensify enough to keep you invested in this story in the latter half.
