Grzegorz Królikiewicz’s Through and Through (or Na wylot, if you want to be authentic) makes your standard crime thriller look like a Saturday morning cartoon. We’re in 1930s Kraków, and the world is gray, hungry and cruel. Jan (Franciszek Trzeciak) is an architect who can’t catch a break, and Maria (Anna Nieborowska) is his partner in this bleak, suffocating dance. They are the definition of the forgotten—poverty-stricken, constantly humiliated by a society that has no room for them and pushed to the absolute edge.

When you’re pushed that far, the line between moral and necessary” just evaporates. Desperation takes the wheel, and they commit a crime that’s less about malice and more about a cry for existence. But don’t go in expecting a straightforward police procedural; this is a descent, plain and simple.

Królikiewicz doesn’t shoot scenes like a normal director; he fragments them. He uses claustrophobic, intense close-ups that feel like they’re invading your personal space, and the sound design is pure, unnerving dissonance. It sounds like a headache, but it’s actually a masterpiece of tension.

When this hit Cannes back in the day, people were throwing around names like Dostoevsky. It’s a deep dive into the psychology of the downtrodden, stripped of all glamour and served cold.

Through and Through is a heavy, challenging, and essential piece of Polish cinema that refuses to be ignored. It’s not a fun Friday night flick—it’s an experience. If you’re into films that challenge your perception of how a story can be told or if you just want to see how high-art misery can be transformed into pure, uncompromising cinema, get your hands on this.

The Radiance Blu-Ray release has a new 2K restoration supervised by cinematographer Bogdan Dziworski, a new interview with critic Michał Oleszczyk and three short films by Królikiewicz. It comes in a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow, with a limited-edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Ela Bittencourt. As always with Radiance, this limited edition of 3000 copies is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, leaving the packaging free of certificates and markings. You can order it from MVD.