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A wedding takes a turn toward the bizarre in "Demon," an affecting supernatural drama from Poland.
Peter (Itay Tiran) arrives in a Polish town to marry his fiancée, Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), in the barn outside the rustic house her family has given him as a wedding present. But when he unearths a skeleton near the house, he unwittingly unleashes a spirit that possesses him, just before the wedding ceremony. Peter and Zaneta go through with the wedding and a wild, vodka-fueled reception, but his behavior grows increasingly strange, and her father (Andrzej Grabovski) tries to keep the guests from noticing.
Director/writer Marcin Wrona (who hanged himself last September as this movie was to show at a Polish film festival) and co-writer Pawel Maslona have created a claustrophobic take on the Jewish folk tale of the dybbuk that feels both old-school and decidedly modern. Tiran and Zulewska give powerful performances as a man overtaken by a malevolent spirit and the new bride who fights to save him from it.
'Demon'
Opens Friday, Sept. 30, at the Tower Theatre; rated R for language and some sexuality/nudity; in English and in Polish and Yiddish with subtitles; 94 minutes.