A penetrating look at “a reality where good counts for nothing and evil is the reference point”, the plot of Anatomy of Evil evokes the most sensational criminal cases of recent years. The leading roles are taken by Krzysztof Stroiński, winner of the Polish Academy’s Eagle for Best Actor for his role in Scratch (Rysa) and Marcin Kowalczyk, holder of the Zbigniew Cybuslki Actor’s Award and the Gdynia Film Festival’s Best Professional Acting Debut award for You Are God (Jesteś Bogiem) and the superlative cast also features Piotr Głowacki (Gods / Bogowie), Andrzej Seweryn (Little Rose / Różyczka), Łukasz Simlat (All About My Parents / Pani z przedszkola), Michalina Olszańska (Jack Strong) and Anna Dereszowska (Ladies / Lejdis). The cinematography is by Michał Englert, holder of awards from the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and the Sundance Film Festival (Lasting / Nieulotny) and the music is the work of award-winning composer and music producer Ludek Drizhal (Entanglement / Uwikłanie; Murder by Numbers). Anatomy of Evil premiers at the Polish Film Festival and goes on general release on 18th September.

The film’s protagonist (Stroiński) is a killer-for-hire who goes by the pseudonym of ‘Lulek. Released from prison on parole, he is approached soon after by a public prosecutor (Głowacki), the man behind his arrest a number of years earlier. The prosecutor makes him an offer he can’t refuse; in return for a large sum of money, the elimination of his official records and the chance to quietly leave the country, Lulek is to take out the commander of the Central Bureau of Investigation. Pretending to be a counter-intelligence officer, Lulek takes on an assistant, Stasiek (Kowalczyk), a sniper who has been dishonourably discharged from the army, the scapegoat for a failed mission in Afghanistan, persuading him that he has been selected for a special operation and that, if he completes it successfully, he will have the opportunity to return to the military. As they prepare to carry out the job, Stasiek begins to harbour suspicions about Lulek’s true intentions. Meanwhile, the man giving the orders is pressing hard for things to be speeded up.