Leave No Traces

Poland, 1983. In the country, despite it being suspended, there still is martial law earlier introduced by the communist regime in order to supress the Solidarity opposition. On 12th May, Grzegorz Przemyk, the son of Barbara Sadowska, an opposition poetess, is detained and severely beaten up by a police patrol. Przemyk dies after a two-day agony. The only witness of the fatal beating is one of Grzegorz’s colleagues, Jurek Popiel, who decides to fight for justice and testify to incriminate the policemen. At first, the State apparatus, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, understates the matter. However, once twenty thousand people march in the streets of Warsaw behind Przemyk’s coffin, the authorities decide to use any means available against the witness and the mother of the deceased to shame them and prevent Jurek from testifying in court.