The Debt

The Debt is a 1999 Polish film directed by Krzysztof Krauze. It is based on a true event that took place in Warsaw, Poland in the early 1990s. Plot After looking for financial backing to start a business importing Italian scooters, college friends Adam and Stefan meet businessman Gerard. While initially very helpful, Gerard soon turns violent, and begins to blackmail the pair for increasingly large sums of money while psychologically terrorizing the two men. Unable to find help from the police, the two men plan to kill Gerard. The movie is based on the true story of Sławomir Sikora and Artur Bryliński, who were later pardoned by the President of Poland because of exposure from the film. Critical reception Critic Piotr Zwierzchowski compared Krauze's The Debt to Michael Hanecke's Funny Games writing that both films are similar in that they convey the same sense of "powerlessness of the main characters as well as the viewers against the morality-defying spectacle of violence". Katarzyna Taras considered The Debt, alongside Robert Gliński's 2001 film Cześć Tereska, to be "the darkest portrayal of Poland's reality after 1989".