User reviews

A dangerous smuggler terrorizing a snowbound family in the mountains... This is less family-oriented as, say, Avalanche 1994, in fact this is quite brutal sometimes -- and needless to say, all the old actors in this, who play Lech, Mateusz and Konrad, are infinitely better than David Hasselhoff. But basically this is an age-old story with very few surprises. The older son being gay is the only motif usually not found in such films. And they use this idea efficiently, showing that in face of a very "masculine" challenge he has to fight the low expectations of his father and brother as well.

Mostly good rhythm and excellent cinematography, but the score is simply too much, with howls, shrieks and all it would be more suitable for a horror with lots of scares. Paired with this story (which flows quietly most of the time) this agitated music raises expectations the pictures can not live up to.

Its hard to like a film that's essentially too drab and depressing to offer much else. The High Frontier meets this definition with a cold unfriendly landscape and even colder, unfriendlier people.

Its hard to empathise with the main characters or even take much of an interest in this by the numbers thriller. Which, of course, is a second point of failure. This has all been done before and done better at that.

On the upside, the acting is solid, no bad b grade performances here but a better tale would have helped populated with more engaging, likeable, characters you can invest in and root for.

As it stands watchable but unremarkable. 5/10 from me.

Seen at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival in April 2017. Very suspenseful thriller from Poland. Great acting. Highly recommended. I don't like reading reviews too much about movies, because they tend to give away too many plot twists. I would definitely advise this strategy for this movie.