How I Became a Gangster

The narrator starts from his childhood. He grew up in the seventies and already knew one thing: adrenaline is better than money. He begins with small thefts, forms a group, and when the order in Poland changes at the end of the eighties the way opens. Gambling, protection, drugs and car smuggling follow in turn. He rises. The narrator does not give his name and his face is not shown for a long time; he tells the story himself. The higher he goes the fewer people are around him, and the fall becomes unavoidable. Maciej Kawulski directs. Marcin Kowalczyk, Tomasz Włosok and Natalia Szroeder are in the cast. It is a Polish production. Its ground is the criminal organisations that emerged in Poland in the nineties; the gap left by the change of system is the engine. The film took a strong result at the Polish box office and sequels were made. Its form is a crime chronicle carried by narration; the genre shape is taken from American gangster films and it does not hide that. The narrative makes the violence stylish and does not judge its character; the choice was criticised. The period design and the choice of music are its strong side. Its limit is originality; the structure is familiar and the narrative does not distinguish itself. Another limit is viewpoint; the women are functional and the narrative does not question that. Who it is for: viewers who like gangster films and Eastern European crime narrative. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit, the shape familiar, and the characters romanticised.