"W głębi lasu"
“W głębi lasu” debuted on Netflix on June 12th last year and it is a second Polish series on the platform. It is based on a book by Harlan Coben, but I haven’t read it. I heard mix reviews about series, so I was really curious. I am a huge fan of crime stories and mysteries and that caused that I looked forward to watch. To be honest, in my life I have watched better crime stories, but this one isn’t the worst. It has some weaknesses and I didn’t get into this entirely, yet is quite nice thanks to the cast. I hope that wasn't the last Polish productions on the platform and soon we'll get a new series.
The series tells a story of Paweł Kopiński, a widowed procurator who has a small daughter. He is investigating a case of a rape of young girl. She claims that she has been raped by two boys, who are sons of very powerful fathers. One of them is an investigative journalist who do everything for his child, even offer a bribe for procurator or digs all dirt on him, just to make him withdraw the indictment. In the meantime, Paweł receives a call from police and the police officer calls him to the morgue to identify a body of a man. He doesn’t have any documents, but in his pocket the police found newspaper clipping about Paweł and the crime from 1994. In September of 1994 Paweł was one of the guardians at summer camp. He was there with his mother and sister and a lot of students from his high school. When night, four of them, also Paweł’s sister, went into the woods and then something terrible happened. Next day they found a naked body of Monika, one of the missing people with throat cut. Soon after the police found Daniel’s body with several stab wounds. Two bodies and two missing children. In the morgue Paweł don’t recognise the body, although his body language says something opposite. The police officer can’t force him to talk, but apparently he sees that Paweł is lying. Using his connections as a procurator, he investigates some clues, which may help to identify the dead man. The police are also investigating and Paweł is his main suspect, but they can’t arrest him because of his immunity. Finally, Paweł is cooperating with the police and admits that the dead man might be his lost friend, who disappeared in the woods in 1994. This is crucial for Paweł, because if Artur survived then his sister might too. The police never found their bodies, but everyone thought that they were buried in the woods. Surprisingly, Artur’s parents don’t recognise the body, although the mas has the same scar as his son had. Artur’s mother says that her son had a scar on his right shoulder and not on the left one. Old photos from the camp show that the woman is lying. Paweł manages to collect a sample of her hair to compare the DNA. The result confirms his assumptions, but he got the sample illegally, so he can’t use it, but it gives him hope that Kamila may be alive. At the same time, Laura who also were on that camp, finds an interesting story in her students work. The story describes what she and Paweł experienced 25 years ago. This brings back memories, because she is a daughter of the director of the camp and the school. After the death of two of four children, he was accused of negligence during the camp. The family has a Jewish surname and this caused a lot of trouble for them. She contacts with him to investigate this. The police in 1994 manage to resolve the case, but the mail police officer wasn’t sure if they had caught the right man. He suspected Paweł, but he hadn’t any evidence. The disappearance of Kamila destroys the family. Soon after this, Paweł’s mother also disappears, but his father told him that she had abandoned the family. At the presence the police accidently find human remains very close to the camp. Paweł thinks that may be his younger sister, but the examination of the bones concludes, that the human remains belong to a woman about 40 years old who had a labour, so this can’t be his sister. Paweł thinks that she may be his mother and the DNA test confirm it. In the last episode we find out that she was strangled by her husband. She came back to take Paweł with her, but her husband didn’t let her did it. In the last episode Artur’s mother finally confesses the truth: Artur and Kamila survived, but they needed to run and hide. Kamila were in love with Daniel and Artur with Monika. Malczak, another guardian, told them that Daniel and Monika were cheating them and the kids planned revenge. During the party they went into the woods to made a campfire. Malczak gave them beer and suggested the naked swimming in the lake. Monika and Daniel agreed and jumped into the lake. Kamila and Artur took their clothes, that supposed to be their revenge: a naked walk through the woods. At the end girls started a fight and Kamila almost strangles Monika. Then, Malczak took a knife and cut Monika’s throat. The rest of the kids run away, but Artur hid in the forest and when he heard footsteps attacked. Unfortunately, it was Daniel not Malczak. Kamila and Artur told everything to their mothers and the kids decided to run, hide and never contact with their anybody. Their mothers knew that Malczak would put the blame on them, so they didn’t have another option. In the final, Paweł finally knows the location of his sister and goes there.
In this series the action takes place in 1994 and in 2019. In the episodes the creators mixed the presence with the past and sometimes it was irritated. We got many scenes from the presence and I think that was unnecessary. I prefer to focus on the crime and not on character’s personal life. Besides, not all storylines were explained and I’m unsatisfied. Although, I must admit that the cast is great. Grzegorz Damięcki, Agnieszka Grochowska, Jacek Koman, Adam Ferency, Dorota Kolak and Izabela Dądrowska did an amazing job. They created their characters very convincingly. The costumes and props were really realistic and helped believe that this was 1994. In my free time I’ll try to read the novel and then compare the film adaptation to the book.
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