Not Easy, but Unforgettable: Polish Cinema Rediscovered

Read Time:6 Minute, 9 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Through And Through (Na wylot)
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Genre: Drama, Crime
Year Released: 1973, Radiance Films Blu-ray 2025
Runtime: 74 minutes
Director: Grzegorz Królikiewicz
Writer: Grzegorz Królikiewicz
Cast: Franciszek Trzeciak, Anna Nieborowska, Irena Ladosiówna, Lucyna Winnicka, Ewa Zdzieszynska, Halina Szram-Kijowska, Jerzy Block, Aleksander Czajczynski, Jerzy Stuhr
Where to Watch: available August 19, 2025. Pre-order your copy here: www.radiancefilms.co.uk, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: THROUGH AND THROUGH is not the kind of film that eases you into its world. It drags you there and locks the door. From the opening moments, Grzegorz Królikiewicz makes it clear this is a story that will not pander to expectations or offer easy emotional beats. Instead, it’s an exercise in immersion — in how poverty, shame, and isolation can strip people down until all that’s left is survival instinct.

The setting is 1930s Kraków, but the desperation it depicts is timeless. Jan (Franciszek Trzeciak) and Maria (Anna Nieborowska) are not romanticized as struggling but noble figures. They’re ordinary people on the brink, holding onto each other not because of some unshakable love story, but because they have nothing else. The film understands that hardship erodes everything — dignity, patience, and sometimes even the ability to care.

Królikiewicz tells their story with an unflinching gaze. The crime at the heart of the plot is almost incidental in its presentation — not staged for suspense, not lingered over with melodrama. It’s simply part of the continuum of their lives, an act born out of necessity more than malice. This choice reveals a great deal about the director’s priorities. He isn’t here to craft a whodunit or a morality tale. He’s here to show the quiet corrosion that leads people to cross lines they never thought they would.

The performances are key to why this works. Trzeciak’s Jan is a man worn down to the bone, his face carrying the weight of every failed attempt to make ends meet. Nieborowska’s Maria matches him in quiet intensity, her moments of tenderness undercut by the constant awareness that tenderness alone won’t pay for food or heat. The two don’t so much act as they inhabit these people, allowing small gestures — a glance away, the way hands linger just short of touching — to speak volumes.

The supporting cast deepens the authenticity. Irena Ladosiówna and Lucyna Winnicka, even in smaller roles, bring an unspoken history to every exchange. These are people who know the weight of community judgment, who understand how quickly neighbors can turn from sympathy to suspicion. It’s a crucial part of the world-building — THROUGH AND THROUGH isn’t just about Jan and Maria, it’s about the ecosystem of quiet desperation they exist within.

Visually, the film is striking without feeling self-conscious. Królikiewicz favors still, deliberate compositions, letting moments play out without cutting away. There’s a patience here that might frustrate viewers looking for traditional pacing, but for those willing to sit with it, the effect is hypnotic. The black-and-white cinematography isn’t simply aesthetic — it mirrors the moral and emotional starkness of the story. There is no middle ground in Jan and Maria’s world, only what is bearable and what is not.

Sound design is equally intentional. Dialogue is sparse, and when it does come, it’s often fragmented or off-screen. Ambient noise — the scrape of a chair, the muffled voices through a thin wall — fills the space, amplifying the sense that life is happening all around them, indifferent to their suffering. It’s an aural reminder that their crisis is just one among many.

The new restoration for the 2025 Blu-ray release does the film justice. The image retains its grain and texture, preserving the sense of time and place, while improving clarity without sterilizing the grit. The mono audio is sharp enough to catch the subtleties of the soundscape without losing the raw edges that make it so immersive. The disc’s extras provide valuable context — interviews that dig into Królikiewicz’s approach, early shorts that reveal his developing style, and commentary on how this debut fits into the broader landscape of Polish cinema.

THROUGH AND THROUGH isn’t without its challenges. Its refusal to provide catharsis may leave some viewers cold, and certain narrative threads drift away without resolution. But that’s part of its truthfulness. Life, especially under the weight of poverty, rarely offers neat endings. The film leaves you with the uncomfortable knowledge that Jan and Maria’s story is far from unique — and far from over.

What lingers most is not the crime itself, but the atmosphere that surrounds it. The unrelenting quiet, the sense of things unsaid, the way the camera seems to watch rather than intrude — all of it builds to a portrait of lives lived under constant strain. By the time the credits roll, you may not feel satisfied, but you will feel something heavier: the recognition of a reality that’s still present in too many places today.

THROUGH AND THROUGH is a difficult watch, not because it’s sensational, but because it’s honest. It strips away the romanticism of struggle and replaces it with the raw, unadorned truth. That truth may not be comforting, but it’s unforgettable.

Bonus Materials:
New 2K restoration supervised by cinematographer Bogdan Dziworski
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
New interview with critic Michał Oleszczyk (2025)
Three short films by Grzegorz Królikiewicz: Everyone Gets What They Don’t Need (1966, 12 mins), Brothers (1971, 6 mins), Don’t Cry (1972, 9 mins)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Ela Bittencourt
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip, leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

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[photo courtesy of RADIANCE FILMS, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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