Power

A young scout is killed by a stray bullet during a hunting expedition involving prominent political figures. Pressured to wrap up the case, the intelligence service coaxes ailing lawyer Marus Steiner to serve as a fixer. Steiner’s clean-up job brings him into the orbit of several characters – an idealist minister fighting the privatisation of water, the grieving family of the victim, an independent journalist, and a crude cop – all seeking to conceal or expose the truth.

After the world premiere of his opera prima, Fine, Thanks, at IFFR 2013, Mátyás Prikler returns to Rotterdam with his second feature. Power is a brooding investigative political thriller inspired by real events that transpired in Slovakia in 2009. Set in winter, the film is arrestingly shot, with precise camera movements and self-aware, perfectly balanced framing that urges the viewer to observe the images closely. Orthogonal compositions make the characters seem like fish in a murky aquarium, providing a God’s-eye-view of this fallen world.

Stripping away specific historical details, Prikler’s film gazes unremittingly at the malignant nature of power which, despite being in the hands of conscientious individuals, has the sole goal of self-perpetuation. It’s a tough, bleak vision that refuses easy consolations, and yet, in the way the camera lingers on certain uncorrupted faces, Power conveys a sense that, ultimately, truth does matter.

– Srikanth Srinivasan