ADiff review: A spooky possession in Poland

When likeable Piotr starts behaving oddly and talking Yiddish, there can only be one explanation . . .

Demon
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Director: Marcin Wrona
Cert: Club
Genre: Drama
Starring: Itay Tiran, Tomasz Schuchardt, Andrzej Grabowski, Agnieszka Zulewska
Running Time: 1 hr 34 mins

Light House 1, Wednesday 24th, 6.30pm, 94 min

Piotr (Itay Tiran) is a likeable chap who, following a whirlwind Skype romance, has travelled from England to rural Poland to marry Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska). While wandering around the house he and Zaneta will receive as a wedding gift from her father, Zgmunt (Andrzej Grabowski), Piotr discovers what look like human remains. He chooses not to tell anyone and the wedding goes ahead. When he starts acting strangely, his new in-laws put it down to booze, then epilepsy. But when he starts talking Yiddish, there can only be one explanation: a dybbuk, or vengeful Jewish spirit, has taken hold. Marcin Wrona's Demon is spooky fun that unexpectedly mines the same collective guilt that powered Pawel Pawlikowski's brilliant historical drama Ida.

Can't see this? Try Jeremy Saulnier's punks-versus-Nazis horror-thriller Green Room. Wednesday 24th, Cineworld 9, 6.15pm

Tara Brady

Tara Brady

Tara Brady, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a writer and film critic