SCARBORN (KOS) Review: Peasants Rise Up Against Nobles

You say you want a revolution? Let's get it on.

Scarborn (Kos)
The film makes its U.S. debut Thursday, April 29, via streaming service Viaplay. .

By their introductions you will know them: Tadeusz "Kos" Kosciuszko (Jacek Braciak) cuts a dashing figure, crossing an open field to come to the rescue of an anonymous peasant who is under attack by a group of armed military men. Acting on instinct, Kos punches more than his weight against the group, aided by his Black friend, Domingo (Jason Mitchell), an American who fought with Kos in the American Revolutionary War.

It is 1794. Kos, who rose to the rank of general in the American Army, has returned to his native Poland, which is on the verge of disappearing entirely from the map as various European nations have grabbed chunks of the nation's territory. Russia is the primary adversary, and their leaders know that Kos has arrived and wants to foment an uprising.

Russian captain Dunin (Robert Więckiewicz) is charged with making sure that doesn't happen. An early scene reveals his brutality, as he savagely kills a Polish nobleman who made the mistake of declaring his superiority. With greater purpose in mind, Kos wants to focus on raising an army of peasants -- the noblemen who volunteer talk a good game, but they can't even bring weapons that work -- to defeat the Russian invasion.

Early on, Ignac (Bartosz Bielenia) is introduced sitting in a tree, trembling, and holding up a bird as a target for the nobleman who claims control of his dying father's estate. Ignac has been assured by his father that he is named in his will, despite his status as a bastard child. That becomes a point of contention when Stanisław (Piotr Pacek), his supremely arrogant half-brother, returns home, intent on securing full ownership of the estate when their father dies, and kicking Ignac into the dust.

Ignac, who is illiterate, steals the will, intending to get it verified by the authorities so he can come into the inheritance that his father promised and maybe escape peasantry forever. Quite by chance, he crosses paths with Domingo, and then with Kos, who urges Ignac to join the revolution against nobility.

Rest assured that the events take place at a brisker pace than the telling of them, sweeping the viewer into a story that is not commonly known in North America, yet has an unsettling degree of modern relevance as things develop.

Having Domingo play an integral role eases the transition into the narrative for non-Polish speakers, since Kos must concisely explain the various situations they get into, and when they need to take decision action. The performances are strong, and director Pawel Maślona does not hesitate to paint the characters in broad strokes; there's never any doubt who is acting heroically and who is a nasty, despicable villain deserving of painful death.

Overflowing with urgency, Scarborn feels the most perilous to its would-be heroes whenever the action slows down and the characters must wait out a tense situation, as in an extended, candle-lit interior scene in which friends and foes are gathered together in a room that feels far too small.

When action erupts, it's chaotic -- like real life, you're not always sure what's happening, and to whom -- and often darkly lit, so it's not always readily apparent who is winning, though the losers are the ones who lay dead at the end.

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