Too bad the title The Mystic Masseur already belongs to a V.S. Naipul book/film property. That title would be most apt for this transfixing feature jointly directed by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert.
The magical-realist tale with tragicomic overtones concerns a mystery fellow from the Ukraine who was exposed to radioactive Chernobyl fallout as a boy, an incident which also apparently led to the premature death of his mother. Wonderful Zhenia (the picture's working title) is now an adult migrant, whose calling as an itinerant masseur is enhanced by his paranormal powers of hypnosis and empathy, and maybe even a bit more.
Using his Jedi mind tricks, Zhenia (Alec Utgoff) obtains a work permit and enters an upscale, somewhat arid Polish community – arid in more ways than one, because global warming has done away with winter snow. The dreariness is felt by assorted residents, who hire Zhenia’s services, unaware that in addition to massage therapy he is comforting their emotional malaise. Females respond especially to the husky and pleasant young man, but Zhenia has his own demons. Is there a woman here (or, possibly, a man) who can heal the healer?
The careful pictorial compositions, long takes/slow zooms, Utgoff's inscrutable performance, and overall approach call to mind Stanley Kubrick, perhaps in his more larkish moods (Lolita for example), though Szumowska and Englert do not have that filmmaker’s ultimate pessimism, and many moments possess a splendid visual lyricism.
Buyers should know that there is occasional female nudity. A highly recommended addition to foreign-language shelves.