Colors of Evil: Red

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Directed byAdrian Panek
Written byLukasz M. Maciejewski
Adrian Panek
Produced byLeszek Bodzak
Aneta Cebula-Hickinbotham
Starring
Colors of Evil: Red
Directed byAdrian Panek
Written byLukasz M. Maciejewski
Adrian Panek
Produced byLeszek Bodzak
Aneta Cebula-Hickinbotham
Starring
CinematographyTomasz Augustynek
Edited byPiotr Kmiecik
Music byBartosz Chajdecki
Production
company
  • Aurum Film
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • 29 May 2024 (2024-05-29)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryPoland
LanguagePolish

Colors of Evil: Red (Polish: Kolory zła. Czerwień) is a 2024 Polish mystery crime thriller film directed by Adrian Panek and based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Malgorzata Oliwia Sobczak. The film stars Jakub Gierszał, Maja Ostaszewska and Zofia Jastrzębska. It follows the murder of a young woman in Tricity, Poland and the rookie prosecutor Leopold Bilski who teams up with the victim's mother, Judge Helena Bogucka.

The film was released on May 29, 2024, by Netflix.

A young girl appears in the beach near Tricity, naked and with her lips torn away. She is soon identified as Monika Bogucka, the daughter of judge Helena Bogucka. Young Leopold Bilski, local public prosecutor, works to discover the identity of the murderer. The coroner discovers that this murder resembles one that took place a decade and a half before: the man that was condemned for said murder, Jakubiak, was let out of prison one week earlier. Jakubiak is arrested after a bloodied shirt is found in his backyard, but he commits suicide while Bilski interrogates him. Bilski's boss considers the matter settled, but Bilski believes there is more to it, and begins to investigate.

A few months before, Monika had gone to the "Dockyard", a disco owned by Kazar, a local mafioso. She gets a job there, and begins to get involved in the drug trade. Happenstance put her in contact with Kazar, who becomes interested in her - much to Monika's distress, as he not only quickly proves to be a vicious murderer, he rapes her. She attempted to report everything she had seen to the police, but the police officer she tried it with (one of the two Bilski is working with) turned out to be a dirty cop in Kazar's pay.

Meanwhile, Bogucka discovers that her husband is hiding something, and follows him one day: this lets her discover he's Kazar's attorney. She tries to learn more about what happened to her daughter, but when she goes to the "Dockyard", someone puts drugs in her drink: thanks to a woman that works for Kazar but that sympathizes with her wish to learn what happened to Monika, she barely manages to escape.

Bilski's work puts him in contact with Tadeusz Dubiela, the coroner that investigated the murder Jakubiak was accused of, Bogucka's lover, and whose son Mario was friends with Monika. He also finds that several women related to the "Dockyard" have disappeared in similar circumstances as other women. He also manages to track down another of Kazar's subordinates, one that had been in a sexual relationship with Monika before Kazar got interested in her. He attempts to get him to surrender and collaborate, but when Bilski's police companions follow, the mafioso recognizes the dirty cop, who kills him.

Bogucka's husband gives her a pendrive with all the information he has on Kazar's dirty businesses: while he knows this will disbar him, he considers it a fair price for putting Kazar behind bars. Bogucka passes the information to Bilski, who quickly arranges a police sting to arrest Kazar. The sting manages to find several disturbing things, but no signs of what he could have done to the missing women. When the dirty cop offers to take Kazar to prison, Bilski orders the cop's partner to do so. Eventually, the dirty cop's dealings are discovered, and he dies when the police shows to arrest him.

Scientific police is unable to find proof of murders at Kazar's house, but Bilski realizes proof could be among Kazar's personal belongings when he was taken to jail: among them is a bracelet made of human lips - lips he cut off from his victims. Kazar admits to the murders, but not to Monika's.

With everything apparently done, Bilski and Bogucka split for personal time, him to meet his daughter and former wife in Warsaw, her to a weekend escape with Tadeusz. Tadeusz and Bogucka find his son Mario in the place they go to. Bliski realizes that, in his previous visit to the Dubiela's home, he saw Mario hiding a ruby ring that belonged to Monika - a ring Bogucka finds in Mario's room at the house she's at. Tadeusz knocks her unconscious and ties her at the basement, but she manages to escape, only to find Tadeusz with a shotgun.

Tadeusz explains that Mario had brought Monika to the same house, but he accidentally killed her while he tried to pressure her into having sex with him. He wanted to give himself up to the police, but Tadeusz instead decided to frame Jakubiak for the murder to keep his son out of prison. Just as Bilski arrives, Tadeusz commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with the shotgun. Mario soon gives himself up to the police.

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