Leave No Traces: there is nothing in the story told by Jan P. Matuszynski in this political thriller that suggests any levity, and the film embraces that weight in what is a really methodical and ponderous experience. It tells about a major institutional cover-up following the murder of a student by policemen; it is the sort of thing that happens time and again in dictatorial regimes (and sometimes elsewhere), and this is a competent (even if a bit overlong) procedural. As is the case often with procedurals, character development is left behind, with most characters seemingly being written in stone. Tomasz Zietek plays the young man who saw his friend beaten to death with both a chip on his shoulder and a great degree of vulnerability; Sandra Korzeniak plays the victim’s mother very effectively. The film has a very somber feel to it, starting with the recreation of the time period through costume and production design (Malgorzata Zacharska and Pawel Jarzebski, respectively); the cinematography, by Kacper Fertacz, is very academic and dark, matching the material.