Wild Wild East

Occupied Poland, winter 1943. Almost two years have passed since the Third Reich’s attack on the USSR and German forces are suffering heavy losses while the extermination of European Jews is at its height.

Enter Martin Wolff (the multifaceted Itay Tiran, Demon, TIFF ’15), a German official sent to a remote village to investigate the disappearance of a lawyer believed to be safeguarding a stockpile of gold belonging to a wealthy Jewish family. Wolff’s reputation proceeds him, and his arrival to a village of traumatized inhabitants, who include Kuliś (Piotr Trojan), his scrappy wife (Joanna Kulig, Cold War, TIFF ’18), Kaim (Robert Więckiewicz, Wałęsa: Man of Hope, TIFF ’13), and his wife (Magdalena Różczka), sends ripples through a community ripe with impoverished locals, corrupt collaborators, and gruesome — albeit paranoid — Nazi authorities.

Moreover, whispers of the hidden fortune have spread and people are getting desperate. As the gritty web of betrayal and greed is revealed, Wolff’s presence unearths more than meets the eye, revealing a landscape where the past and present refuse to be buried and where everything comes with a price. Penned by Aleksandra Takuska, Wild Wild East is full of unexpected bombshells and shocking historical truths.

Flanked by producing powerhouses Bogna Szewczyk-Skupień and Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska (The Testament of Ann Lee, TIFF ’25; High Life, TIFF ’18) as well as Ewa Puszczyńska (The Zone of Interest, TIFF ’23; Ida, TIFF ’16), director Jan Holoubek’s tour de force is keenly shot by Bartek Kaczmarek and enveloped by Jan Komar’s original score. A suspenseful western meets wartime noir, this genre-blending film will resonate far and wide.

DOROTA LECH