Agnieszka Holland’s “Spoor” has been chosen as Poland’s candidate for best foreign-language film at the 2018 Oscars, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. Holland’s “In Darkness” received a nomination in this category back in 2011, and the writer-director scored a nod for her “Europa, Europa” screenplay in 1992.
Based on Olga Tokarczuk’s best-selling 2009 novel “Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead,” “Spoor” follows “an aging hippie and animal-rights activist Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka), who follows a path of astrologically determined revenge after hunters kill her beloved dogs,” THR summarizes.
The crime drama made its world premiere this February at the Berlinale, where it took home a Silver Bear.
Poland’s Oscar committee described “Spoor” as “a universal, carefully crafted story that certainly increases our sensibility. This patchwork of genres remains incredibly current and has us constantly asking basic questions. It is a film about the value of fighting for what surrounds us, for our environment, and for those who are weaker than us.”
Other women-directed films in the foreign-language race include Petra Volpe’s women’s rights drama “The Divine Order,” Ildikó Enyedi’s unconventional romantic drama “On Body and Soul,” and Annemarie Jacir’s “Wajib,” a dramedy about a father and his estranged son.
