Director: Natalia Koryncka-Gruz
Starring: Rafal Mackowiak, Miroslaw Baka, Magdalena Cielecka, Ewa Gorzelak, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Artur Zmijewski, Andrzej Lapicki, Jerzy Bonczak

- Reviewed by Linda

Poland has a great cinematic tradition, so even so-so films like Amok are worth seeing, just to see the spin a Polish filmmaker might put on a story that is, simply enough, Wall Street in Warsaw circa 1993. This is a time post-Berlin Wall, post-Cold War when Poland was coming out of the oppressive shadow of Russia and the Soviet Union, and beginning to flex its free-enterprise muscles with a fast-growing stock market.

Maciek (Rafal Mackowiak) is a young radio journalist sent to do a story about the stock market, to get the inside scoop. Of course, in his research, he is pulled under the wing of a shady character named Max. Max will show him the inside story, for sure, but to really understand, Maciek needs to gamble in the market himself. Will Maciek get in over his head? Will he become money obsessed? Will he neglect and lose his girlfriend in the process? Of course. No surprise.

Mackowiak, as Maciek, sure is a cutie-pie... even more so because he is a young good-looking actor who obviously doesn't have a six-pack under his floppy T-shirt. He holds his own with more seasoned players, like Miroslaw Baka (as Max), who is a vet of Polish cinema (including a role in one of the segments of Kieslowski's Dekalog). 

Amok is a pretty straightforward and predictable film, but with the background of an emerging democracy, it gives a fresh perspective on the greed-kills-innocence formula.

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