Spoor 2021

In the isolated, snow-capped mountains of south-western Poland’s Klodzko Valley, eccentric matriarch Janina Duszejko (no age given) resides with her two loyal canine companions. Her tranquility is shattered when her dogs vanish while she’s ferrying local resident Dobra Nowina to the market. As she searches for answers, her ire turns towards “Big Foot,” a notorious poacher whose traps are filled with suffering animals. One fateful night, Matoga, another neighbor, disturbs Janina’s slumber, bearing news of Big Foot’s untimely demise. The local police chief, summoned to investigate, pays Janina a visit, only to dismiss her concerns about the missing dogs.

Undeterred, Janina approaches the local priest, seeking solace in her grief and frustration with the hunting activities plaguing the area. However, she’s rebuked for her perceived blasphemy in elevating animal welfare above human concerns. As winter descends upon the valley, Janina’s outrage intensifies when she and Dyzio, an IT expert working for the police department (played by Tomasz Kot), stumble upon the abandoned vehicle of the recently deceased police chief. The gruesome discovery is accompanied by telltale animal tracks near the body.

Summoned to the prosecutor’s office to share her findings, Janina presents her theories on astrology and the significance of the tracks she discovered. Her words fall on deaf ears as the prosecutor dismisses her claims. As she navigates this treacherous landscape, Janina forges unlikely alliances with Dyzio and Dobra Nowina, now Wnetrzak’s employee by day and a fixture at his illicit brothel by night. Dyzio owes Janina a debt of gratitude for keeping his epilepsy a secret, which would have cost him his job.

Meanwhile, Dobra Nowina harbors secrets of her own, including a troubled past marked by abuse at the hands of their father. Her struggles to secure custody of her younger sibling are compounded when she learns that Wnetrzak has twice reported her as unfit. As Janina delves deeper into the mysteries of the valley, she stumbles upon the lifeless body of a young boar, an off-season killing that sparks her outrage. Yet again, her concerns are met with indifference by the authorities, leaving her to wonder if anyone truly cares about the suffering and injustice plaguing their community.

As the summer sun beats down on the rustic landscape, Duszejko’s path crosses with that of Boros Schneider, a Czech entomologist, in the midst of a forest glade. The somber atmosphere is shattered by the discovery of Wnetrzak’s lifeless body, which has lain undisturbed for months. Boros reports the grim find to the authorities, sparking a chain reaction of events that will forever alter Duszejko’s life. As their romantic relationship blossoms, Boros shares his expertise on pheromones and their role in attracting certain beetles, an insight that will later prove crucial in unraveling the mysteries surrounding Wnetrzak’s demise.

As the investigation unfolds, Duszejko finds herself at the center of a maelstrom of suspicion. The prosecutor subjects her to a grueling interrogation, during which she presents a provocative theory: that the victims, all of whom were hunters, met their untimely ends at the hands of wild animals. Meanwhile, the authorities are hot on the trail of Dobra Nowina, Wnetrzak’s nemesis, who has been accused of making threats against him.

As the local social scene heats up, Duszejko and Matoga attend a masquerade ball, where the cream of society gathers to revel in anonymity. Amidst the sea of masks and finery, Duszejko bears witness to the mayor’s debauched behavior, as he flagrantly disregards his wife’s pleas for attention. With compassion and resolve, she ushers the beleaguered woman out of harm’s way, vowing to ensure the mayor’s safe return home.

The next day, the police arrive at Duszejko’s doorstep, arresting her for Wolski’s untimely demise on the basis that she was the last person to lay eyes on him. As she recounts her account of events – including her well-intentioned but ultimately doomed efforts to find and escort the inebriated mayor back to his home – Duszejko’s words are met with incredulity by the authorities, who finally release her due to her exasperating astrological theories.

As she navigates the complexities of human nature, Duszejko finds solace in a church service, only to be abruptly ejected from the premises after the priest’s impassioned sermon, which seems to glorify the very hunters whose deaths have left such a trail of devastation. The disquieting experience is further compounded by her chance encounter with a magpie, its feathers ruffled as it carries an object toward the church tower – a poignant reminder of Duszejko’s earlier warning about these birds’ alleged penchant for sparking fires.

As she struggles to make sense of the chaos unfolding around her, Duszejko is suddenly plunged into a flashback, revisiting the fateful moment when she inadvertently struck down the police chief during a skiing excursion. Her subsequent efforts to cover her tracks by creating animal tracks around the body and attempting to flee in her vehicle only serve to underscore the gravity of her actions.

Yet another flashback transports Duszejko back to the forest, where she lures Wnetrzak to his doom with a tantalizing promise of hidden treasure. As he succumbs to her blows, she is overcome by a sense of remorse and, in a poignant gesture of penance, releases all the animals from his fox farm into the wild.

As Dyzio (character) sits alongside Dobra Nowina, the memories of the mayor’s gruesome discovery come flooding back. The beetles that had swarmed his lifeless body, the pheromones that drew them to their victim, and the inexplicable connection between them all - it was as if Duszejko had orchestrated the very fate that befell him. The revelation sparks a chain of events that propels Dyzio into a world of conspiracy and betrayal.

The news of the church’s destruction and the priest’s untimely demise only adds fuel to the fire, driving Dyzio and his companions - including Dobra Nowina - to seek out Matoga and Duszejko. Their arrival at her kitchen table finds them face-to-face with a haunting photograph: a group of hunters proudly displaying their trophies, including Duszejko’s two fallen canines. The image is all the more jarring given its discovery in the aftermath of Big Foot’s passing.

As the truth begins to unravel, Duszejko recounts her own account of the mayor’s demise - a tragic tale of drunken recklessness and canine cruelty. Her recollection paints a vivid picture of a man stumbling through the forest, unaware of his surroundings, until he stumbled upon the wrong dogs. The mayor’s fate was sealed when Duszejko confronted him, urging him to partake in the very pheromones that had drawn the beetles to their quarry.

With the authorities closing in on her, Duszejko finds herself trapped in a web of deceit and corruption. Her allies, Matoga, Dyzio, and Dobra Nowina, hatch a plan to smuggle her out of town, navigating the treacherous landscape with ease. Dyzio’s IT prowess proves crucial in their bid for freedom, as he masterfully cuts off the power supply, allowing them to slip away into the shadows.

In the end, Duszejko emerges victorious, her new canine companions by her side. As she gathers around a table with Matoga, Dyzio, Dobra Nowina, and her little brother Boros in a neighboring country, it becomes clear that their escape marks not only their freedom but also a chance to start anew, leaving the dark secrets of their past far behind.