11 Minutes

(11 minut, Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Ireland 2015, 81 min., DCP, Polish w/subtitles)

Polish Film Festival | Rochester Premiere. In the span of eleven tense minutes, a whirlwind of interlocking tales of life in the surveillance age unfold in this stylish, propulsive thriller from acclaimed director Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, Essential Killing). In a city square in Warsaw, a sleazy film director “auditions” a married actress in a hotel room; a hot dog vendor goes about his work while concealing a dark secret; a motorcycle-driving drug runner trysts with a client’s wife; and a young man plots an ill-advised robbery. Mixing sleek cinematography with footage from webcam, smartphone, and CCTV cameras, 11 Minutes masterfully lays out the pieces of a puzzle and then brings them together in an explosive climax.