Mug (2018)

Jacek, a scruffy small-town oddball, loves heavy metal, his girl-friend, dog and small car. Employed as a builder of the giant statue of Christ the King in western Poland, he sustains a horrible accident at work. Amid the attention of the whole country, Jacek becomes the first Polish citizen to have a face transplant. A strange, emotionally engaging film, MUG tells a story of inner strength and beauty, brilliantly blending realism, streaks of fantasy and dark humour. Małgorzata Szumowska applies a loosened structure, whose inscrutability is further augmented by a refined work with the camera. The result is an uncompromising, yet funny study of an identity crisis, craftily switching between farce and sardonic social comment.