Gods (Bogowie)

Director:  Lukasz Palkowski  2014.

This film is such a surprise heart wrencher and received a well-deserved whoop of delight from the West End audience that viewed it after a long wait in a cold autumn queue in Leicester Square. The audience was composed mostly of London's Polish population, however, from a British and film 'box-ticking' perspective - 'Gods' (Bogowie) bakes biscuits galore. 

We have an opener which is highly unorthodox with the main male lead - a exceptional performance by Tomasz Kot who plays surgeon, pioneer, and chain smoker Zbigniew Religa who may or may not have been as unfeasibly tall as the man himself, talking to us directly to camera. The actor claims that some of his own heart was left in the film and this is evident. He delivers a very non politically correct diatribe on the use of smoking in the film (which is as profound and noticeable as the use of cigarettes in Mad Men), and tells us that there was a deliberate allocation for the use of cut cigarettes to imply the real use of the fag as contemplative and tension release tool. This was deployed to add to the realism and the time in which the piece is set pre knowledge of the connection between smoking and heart disease. It may be controversial but it works and adds to the raw honesty running through the entire docudrama. 

This was a brave move and it pays off. The lead is just a joy, the cigarettes acting as hard in the plot as does the Lada/Skoda like green tin that he drives around the Polish countryside whilst pressing on, determined to go ahead with his gusty decisions.

There is a sense throughout that this could just as well be a film about a bootstrapping Start Up: defying all convention and mores in heart surgery in Poland, the high risk, high contention gesture of opening an independent surgery with a maverick staff with a limited budget could really be another story about a business, or plight of any type as the film is a 'triumph of the underdog' or 'rooting for the maverick' story. It could be Rocky or Jerry Maguire and follows the tradition of the high consciousness movie that has won hearts and minds (and Oscars) for decades though without the evident high production values of a mainstream Hollywood crowd pleaser bound for box office success and critical acclaim. No wonder as this was deliberately written, directed and played as a work of fiction. The director (Lukasz Palkowski) during the Q&A, in London's Vue cinema, let us in on this creative decision which was done purposely and the result is great. Let's hope that this little gem of a film finds its way away from the natural audience of Polish nationals and naturals the world over and is seen by critics and the world at large for being the utterly charming delight that it is. It fails to strike a dud note. 

As much as the mood and politics of the period is evident, it is never played upon or exploited. Moreover, the use of music is the time travel parallel which runs from Booker T and The MG's Green Onions to Kool and the Gang, the soundtrack and nod to western acknowledgement accompanies the surgeons that are working in Britain and the US feeding the international knowledge on the matter of heart transplants and their place in saving lives. So, in a time when there was still a distinct East/West divide, the sense of scientific collaboration is very much there. The surgeons chat about their placements in various nations and what they have done and learned. The fight between the orthodox against the unorthodox is never underplayed which we need always in stories of the brave going against the tide. Even the idea of the heart as the centre of feeling is given over but within the context of a genuinely frightened woman, unnerved by the prospect of the heart of another occupying a space in her husband's chest. The moral and clinical dimension over donating organs is put over very well and each failure is felt by the audience. By the time a patient survives into years, we are as pleased and proud of the main protagonists as they are themselves, the last we see of them though is at the aftermath of an attempt at life rescue with the participants sitting exhausted on the floor of the surgery with all attendant furniture appearing fresh and raw in blood, sweat and defeat from the recent hyperactivity. The calm is high volume and resonant.

Gods is on general but marginal theatrical release and has not as yet an Amazon reference so it is not clear if this film has DVD distribution, however if playing at a cinema near you, go see it. As satisfying a cinema journey as anyone would want as well as an uplifting experience.

Reviewed by Gail Spencer