Walkover

Back from military service, Andrzej Leszczyc travels the country entering amateur boxing bouts: if the opponent fails to appear he wins by default, and if he does appear he fights. In an industrial town he runs into an old university friend; she is an engineer there and offers him a job if he will stay. The film is not interested in boxing. It is interested in the idea of winning by default: the hero has spent his life trying to win without fighting, and now, between staying and leaving, he again declines to decide. The title comes straight out of that refusal. The form is striking: the film was shot with very few cuts, in long, carefully choreographed takes; the camera walks with the characters and scenes proceed in a single breath. This is Jerzy Skolimowski's second feature and the second film about his alter ego Andrzej Leszczyc, after Identification Marks: None. Skolimowski again directs and plays the lead. Aleksandra Zawieruszanka plays the engineer. Who it is for: viewers who like Polish cinema, New Wave aesthetics and technically bold shooting. Who it is not for: anyone looking for plot. The film takes place across roughly a single day and the hero's indecision lasts to the end.