2020 | 116 minutes
Jan Holoubek
Jan Holoubek’s debut film is a moving crime thriller based on an absurd and horrifying true-life story. The life of Tomek Komenda was destroyed forever one awful night when he was arrested, accused of committing a brutal murder, convicted, and thrown into prison for decades. Despite years of humiliation, violence, and injustice, Komenda kept his hope and humanity and always maintained his innocence despite the evidence presented to him. This intense drama depicts unflinchingly the superhuman struggle of Komenda and his mother to preserve their humanity in this dire situation that saw Komenda languish in prison for almost two decades. A striking first feature film, The Case of Tomek Komenda is a sobering and dramatic reminder of how justice systems anywhere can make mistakes and change, utterly, the lives of innocent people.