Prime Time (2021)
- Reviewed from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
New Year’s Eve, 1999, Poland. A young man, armed with a gun and a manifesto, sneaks into a TV studio and holds a presenter and a security guard hostage. His goal – make it onto live TV and share his message with the nation – seems simple, but ineffective police tactics and self-interested producers make it anything but.
In the mould of the Safdie Bros, or Dog Day Afternoon, Jakub Piatek’s debut feature is a carefully crafted package of ever-ratcheting stress. Every person for themself, this pressure-cooker drama is imbued with the wild, selfish capitalism of post-communist Poland. A bungled, rudderless mess in the best possible sense.