21/12/2023 - Centred on an investigative journalist who ventures at her own peril into the world of hacking, Piotr Adamski delivers a gloomy, atmospheric and punchy thriller

"I’m not crazy, my reality is just different from yours." This quote from Alice in Wonderland is one of the many clues found during the dangerous investigation led by the ambitious and determined journalist from The Hidden Web, a toxic thriller from Piotr Adamski, screened in the Playtime section of the 15th Les Arcs Film Festival. After first being spotted in 2019 with his debut feature Eastern [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Piotr Adamski
film profile], the Polish filmmaker once again delivers a genre film centred on a female character, over whom hover the shadows of death and heavy secrets from the past. This time, however, the film is also set in a hyper modern world where digital technology has the potential to be extremely intrusive, to the point of violating people’s privacy and perhaps even kill by proxy. 

"How many clicks do we need? 5 million?" At the editorial conference for Mega News, in Warsaw, topic after topic is pitched. For Julita (Magdalena Kolesnik), a beautiful and very confident journalist in her thirties, the death of famous TV presenter Gustaw Miller in a car accident the day before (which strikingly opens the film) represents an opportunity: she believes she might be able to get an interview with the widow via her own father (Andrzej Seweryn), another known figure in the Polish TV landscape. But it isn’t long before she begins to suspect that this story may not be as straightforward as it appears (the picture of the deceased reveals strange bruises inconsistent with a car accident, and a witness of the crash throws further doubt on this official version of events).

One very popular article and one strange file received in her mailbox later, Julita finds herself thrown into a torrent of trouble: one of her private erotic videos is broadcast everywhere (on all the computers and screens of the editorial staff, on social networks and on endless news websites). Forced to quit her job, she however does not abandon her investigation, and enters the secret world of hackers with the help of Janek (Błażej Dabrowski). But her quest for clues becomes more and more intense and increasingly dangerous…  

Based on a novel by Jakub Szamalek, The Hidden Web is a much more subtle film than its very efficient but basic genre beats might signal (the powerful have obscure secrets, approach them at your own risk). The script conceals surprising hidden depths, and the filmmaker very skillfully manoeuvers his protagonist as well as the cameras from domestic appliances that spy on her without her noticing. It’s a particularly unsettling dimension of the story, beautifully displayed through the atmospheric cinematography by Tomasz Wozniczka. Through all the physical and mental forms of humiliation that the journalist suffers in order to uncover the truth, the film also suggests the power of feminism (“I think, I feel, I decide”) to reveal the evil side of male domination. It makes for a sombre atmosphere, between contemporary Shakespeare and high tech threat, that is perfectly echoed in the closing song Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The Hidden Web was produced by Monolith Films, also in charge of international sales.

(Translated from French)