A police car drives up on a remote road. The driver stops to ask a passerby for directions to a Tadeusz Gadacz’s residence. The car comes to a stop and a serious-looking woman steps out and walks on a muddy pathway and across a tiny makeshift bridge. We are soon introduced to Tadeusz, a bespectacled middle-aged man, obviously living a quiet, rural life.

The lady makes a proposal. Tadeusz will be reinstated to the police force as a deputy inspector and all his past wrongdoings will be swept under the carpet if he solves a heist-and-murder case in two weeks. The SBG bank was robbed, and some women were killed during the heist. She makes it clear that he was recommended by a minister, and they want to keep it as quiet as possible to avoid negative publicity for the town and the bank, which is set to be privatised. If he solves the case, he will be returned to active duty on the force.

DAY 1. The investigation begins. Tadeusz learns that three women were killed in the course of a heist that had some strange quirks. Only a 100,000 zlotys taken, untouched safe deposit boxes, a birthday cake. Soon, officers on the case narrow down to a missing security guard as the prime suspect of what looks like an inside job (the security cameras were turned off). But Tadeusz sees what nobody sees—the very reason he is good at his job. He discovers the dead body of the security stashed away in a ventilation duct within no time.

The story then follows (no spoilers here!) a gripping police procedural, with Tadeusz leading the case, sniffing out details like no one else can. He is partnered with a younger officer, Aleksandra (Wiktoria Gorodecka), with whom he strikes up a cordial working relationship. We soon have a list of suspects and are introduced to each one of them and their backstory. The story builds into a thrilling cat-and-mouse game, with Tadeusz and team building up as much evidence as they can to pin them down.

Tadeausz meticulously pieces the puzzle together through uncanny instinct and expert deduction from years on the field. The suspects prove hard to catch but eventually make the mistakes that will prove capture inescapable, up to a very dramatic but not surprising climax.

What makes the movie very watchable is its strong, realistic writing. People talk like they would in a real situation, not like ‘in a movie’. The pacing is unhurried, and well-rounded characters are portrayed with very solid performances from all the players throughout the movie, especially Olaf Lubaszenko as the broodingly efficient Tadeusz, and Jedrzej Hycnar as Kacper Surmiak, the poker-faced prime suspect, who, in the end, is just flesh and blood but with the fatal desperation of someone that “has made a mistake and it’s too late for them to undo it”… portentous words from Deputy Inspector Tadeusz Gadacz.