Movie review and the plot

"...in prison there`s no present...There`s only past in memories, and future in dreams..."

Slightly uneven despite its name, “Symmetry” reps an atmospheric if predictable attempt to transpose overworked jail-movie mechanics to a contempo Polish setting. Well-received in its home territory for a
frank account of current penitentiary conditions, sophomore helmer Konrad Niewolski’s plot about a falsely accused young man who turns from callow youth to callous con looks humdrum from an international perspective. Ultimately, “Symmetry” is likely to stay incarcerated at
home, with only limited prospects of day release for fests abroad.
Opening obliquely foreshadows events, as an anonymous hand draws up a report detailing a suicide, followed by images suggestive of child abuse. Pic then plunges into the main story proper, as 26-year-old college student Lukasz Machnachi (Arek Detmer) is arrested and falsely accusing of assaulting an old lady, who mistakenly picks him out of a lineup.
Lukasz finds himself shoved unceremoniously into a six-man cell in a mazy prison, holed up with a typical movie assortment of cons, including pugnacious psycho Albert (Borys Szyc), wise old-timer Roman
(Janusz Bukowski), and middleclass academic Dawid (Andrzej Chyra) who’s doing time for killing the man who raped his wife.
Lukasz’s only hope to survive the constant threat of sudden violence
is to adapt to the dog-eat-dog philosophy.
As the months grind by and Lukasz grows ever more estranged from the world beyond prison, he gradually hardens. By the final reel, he participates in a fatal attack on a child molester (perhaps the one
partly seen in the credits), thereby achieving the “symmetry” of guilt
hinted at in the title.
Pic shies away from showing male rape or even inflicting it on the characters we get to know, despite frequently alluding to its pervasiveness. However, a lurid flashback in which Dawid’s wife (Kinga Preis) is sexually assaulted is included.
Perhaps the filmmakers felt Polish audiences weren’t quite ready to deal with images of violent male sodomy. But given international viewers are used to seeing it in numerous recent prison dramas (“American History X,” “The Shawshank Redemption”) and even in TV series like HBO’s
“Oz,” the omission seems almost coy. Likewise the violence and the
conditions seen here are comparatively tame for the genre.
Most compelling elements are the strong performances, especially
from Detmer, who manages his character’s mutation from passive
schlemiel to hardened crim with admirable skill. His clearly unhinged
zeal for vengeance by the final reel daringly undercuts sympathy for
his character but opens the pic’s potential as a wider indictment of society. Strong support is leant by Chyra and Szyc in particular,
though their characters remain less developed.
Lenser Arkadiusz Tomiak favors a cool, grayish palette that softly
carpets the pic’s somber atmosphere, although a showier shot, of a
hanged corpse silhouetted by sunlight, makes for an arresting climax.
Other tech credits OK to adequate.

Review by LESLIE FELPERIN from "VARIETY REVIEWS" (20 May 2004)