Bogowie (2014) User Reviews

First good Polish movie in years

[darek4488 · 9/10 · 9 October 2014]

I was waiting for a good Polish movie for a very long time. They were serving us lots of crap for the last few years.

I would recommend this movie to any adult in the world. It should be easy to translate, because the value of life is known to any human on the planet. Moreover the fight to keep people alive is very immersive and you feel like you are standing next to a real doctor, watching his hands. It is moving, quite dramatic on moments yet filled with jokes so you are not kept tense for the whole time. The mix of victories and failures make it very realistic. All the setting, exteriors, interiors, clothes, furniture, cars are period correct. Everything looks exactly as it should except some music tracks are ahead of it's time, but they fill the theme quite OK. I hope we can finally see the rebirth of Polish cinematography and more movies as good as this one.

Great acting. Great uniform theme of the 80's in Poland. The best doctor movie I have seen in my life.

Compelling and dramatic medical history

[rhjph · 8/10 · 17 January 2016]

Maverick, mercurial young heart surgeon, recently returned from the US to Poland, takes on the conservative local medical hierarchy, as well as Communist bureaucracy, in his driving ambition to put Poland, patients,and himself in the forefront of world cardiology. With the film based on a true story, he challenges conventional thinking, inspires a renegade young team and strives to overcome obstructions and reverses, while struggling with his own demons in a cloud of cigarette smoke. Set around 1985, the subdued, but not dull, colour palette reflects the late Communist era, with tight, fast-moving editing, as well as framing. Sub-titled, sometimes in slightly questionable English, the script swings between narrative, tragedy and some comedy, with echoes of the Stephen Hawking Theory of Everything. Acting is of a satisfying standard, although some of the supporting parts are thinly characterised. The viewer must survive a good deal of gory surgery, which is more than can be said of some of the patients. Recommended.

Wow

[fakhar-abbas9 · 8/10 · 9 December 2020]

Great biopic. It shows to achieve great things in life one has to be dedicated and crazy also it shows that you must never tired of trying again and again if you really want to achieve some thing in life. Great movie.

Stupendous!

[surjosinha · 10/10 · 26 October 2014]

I came across this under-the-radar film today, read the only review already on IMDb, heard from a Polish friend that it was quite good and couldn't really find anything else on it before going to see it.

I was expecting it to be good, but it turned out to be possibly the most enjoyable film I've seen all year (I see at least 30-40 new releases each year, and with a reasonable degree of research before watching, almost never see a terrible film - the only awful film I've seen in a theatre in the last two years is The Counselor where I didn't research the film and went in because of the cast - never again!).

A biopic made in a typical European style - understated drama, lots of subtle as well as some black humour and emotional depth. Riveting from start to finish, it is the story of the man who pioneered the first heart transplant in Poland after wading through the obstacles thrown at him by a sceptical medical fraternity and lumbering bureaucracy (he later went on to become a prominent politician though the film focuses purely on the events leading up to the event that made him famous in Poland).

Tomasz Kot is brilliant playing Religa, and the entire supporting cast are very good. There is a reasonable amount of medical jargon used (I was following English subtitles) which worked for me as a fan of medical dramas.

The depiction of Poland and life there in the 80s is very well done - there are subtle homages to the period setting (through the soundtrack for example) but you never get the feeling the director is getting carried away with the setting and the events of the story remain the main focus.

Technically the film is very well shot and edited (some of the surgery scenes are fascinating in their detail) and the script is excellent. Highly recommended!

Fantastic movie

[chris-34721 · 10/10 · 1 March 2015]

This Polish movie was excellent!! I had no clue Dr Religa was behind the famous National Geographic photo that you see at the end, of the exhausted surgeon in the OR after 23 hours of surgery with the assistant sleeping in a corner. I had to read subtitles, but it's not an action film so i didn't care. This biopic of one of the first cardiac surgeon to perform a heart transplant and his fight against the communist, Kafkaesque bureaucracy to open his clinic was truly epic and riveting from start to finish. I hope it'll be presented at the Oscars next year for foreign film or at least the Golden Globes, because really it was no less interesting than The Imitation Game or The Theory of Everything, both of which were also biopic masterpieces. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

the male actors are also very vivid

[yoggwork · 7/10 · 19 February 2019]

The music is very good, the male actors are also very vivid, but the decadence of frustration is a little worse. There are still many unsolved problems in human life. This road needs understanding and courage.

Best film on the film fest in Minsk,May 2015

[biscophoto · 10/10 · 19 May 2015]

Breathtakingly humanistic film. Hyper-realistic camera and set design. Editing work - fast, full of surprising moments, rhythmic just like the pulsating heart of a human on the surgical table or a spectator in the darkens of movie theater. Convincing presence of the main character and cast. Directorial psychological excellence in audience involvement in the struggle to save a life and the overcoming of so many aspects of human believes and realities. Catholic-Atheism mitt the Hippocratic oath. Very accrued description of the 1980's Poland without political overtones. Movable film-making. Resurrection of the Polish film school excellence and a new vision of the old world.

An interesting film in this world that has been hidden so much

[Andres-Camara · 6/10 · 19 June 2017]

891/5000 It's a credible film. You believe it, that's why I approve. Not a great movie and some departments are short but at least it arrives. It is interesting to see parts of the history of some countries and how it developed.

The best thing about the movie is that all the actors are great. No one gets you out of the movie. I do not know what the real doctor would be like, if he had those special stages that this actor has. His physique and the overall is very special.

The photography is not great but if you manage to move to that time in that country. It has an atmosphere very well taken and helps you to believe it.

It has an address that at least gets you bored. It does not have nice blueprints but rather, simple ones and it does not have much staging but at least from time to time does not exceed in making close-ups.

To spend some time and learn some history is good

Protagonist excellence and inspiring story

[gazgas · 10/10 · 12 October 2015]

Had time to watch such convincing actor and what an inspiring story as well.

Magnificent acting by the protagonist and stunning balance of ethics (due to sensitive matter), humor, seriousness , drama, comic.

I remember thinking during seeing this film that when someone is just brilliant and really likes and believes what he does, he is unstoppable. And moreover since we currently are in the era of startups, the film reveals a perspective of a Medical Clinic startup in an era when there is no context for incubation but rather hostility towards individual ambitions.

Food for thoughts, inspiration and heart.

Highly recommended

Excellent

[uuziaa · 10/10 · 23 November 2014]

I went to watch this movie with my mom. We both loved it - excellent actors, thought-provoking concepts, and HILARIOUS lines at times. My mom was glad to show me a piece of her life - socialist realm she remembers from her youth. I was glad to share with her a bit of my life - I am not a doctor, but a researcher in a medicine-related field.

This movie was needed. I am looking forward to English translation, I want to watch it with my friends who are also scientists. I needed to see this to remind myself why I do what I d, I'm sure they will too. The guy transplanted a freaking HEART without even having a computer or freedom, I can as well suck it up in my lab.

Time to operate

[tenshi_ippikiookami · 5/10 · 12 August 2016]

"Bogowie" tells the story of surgeon Religa and his fight to get a hospital where he can do heart transplants going, all in the background of Communist and Catholic Poland, forces that will, in different ways, oppose his desires.

"Bogowie" follows the rule-book in explaining the story of a person advanced to their time, that has to fight against some preconceptions, in this case, beliefs that the hearts have feelings and that people will change personalities if they receive a heart transplant. In that respect, it doesn't stray away from hundreds of other movies that tell similar stories. The plot is not very original, and the direction, quite flat, doesn't help much. When it tries to get flashy it comes out as messy, which doesn't help. The acting is better, but the actors don't have a lot to work with, as the movie is very stern and it's basically men smoking and shouting and being angry the whole time.

In the end, "Bogowie" ends up being not very original or engaging. A nice failure, but a failure nonetheless.

Hidden treasure

[wojwys · 10/10 · 25 February 2015]

I did not expect much from the movie and only decided to watch it out of respect to Zbigniew Religa. The only drawback is footage from real surgeries on open heart, and this may be too graphic for some viewers to stomach. The viewer will find it hard to observe the action from the back seat as the whole plot evolves like Bolero by Ravel.

It starts rather slow, in casual manner, just to turn up a notch every once a while. The production crew faced quite a challenge since most viewers knew what happened in real life, and what the final outcome was. In this respect the challenge was met with a great performance, especially by the main character. Just like in Bolero the movie ends with a high note, leaving the audience in awe.