A study of power on a small scale. Four Polish laborers, sans work permits, are in London on a Laurel-and-Hardy construction job, when the military back home cracks down on Solidarity, and the foreman of the crew, the only one of them who speaks English, tries to keep the knowledge from his fellows. There are some excruciating (and some amusing) effects of isolation, of incomprehension, of incompetence, of furtiveness, of fear. Rather too much of the exposition is given over to expedient, first-person narration, and the movie becomes too much a one-man show, with too little sense of the chemistry of the work team. This is partly, but not entirely, an effect of the story. And Jeremy Irons is too much the chiselled, taut, actorish face. Written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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