The woman, Kamila, is not exactly a “spring chicken” (Magdalena Boczarska is 32). However, she is exactly half the age of the professor, Adam, who apparently seduces her with the magic, fancy lights, and mists of high culture (he is a writer who has a knowledge of French wines, French language, and classical literature and philosophy). This Polish movie is set in the late ’60s, which is the beginning of the end of Poland’s totalitarian moment. The party wants Adam’s head. He is popular, outspoken, and not sympathetic to socialist realism. The party assigns Roman, an agent of the secret police, the mission of destroying Adam’s reputation. In turn, Roman assigns his girlfriend, Kamila, the mission of being seduced by the professor and entering his private world.
Roman is a former boxer whose relationship with Kamila lacks any romance or sensitivity—they meet, he fucks her like an animal, he smokes a cigarette and returns to his secret work. The professor, of course, is gentle and tender, and admires Kamila’s beauty—which matches the beauty of his intelligence. Eventually, the line between being a spy and being a lover evaporates, and the film’s defining tension is exposed: Is she in love with the boxer, the professor, the party, or all three? A Little Rose, which is in the Seattle Polish Film Festival, certainly has its flaws, but it has a fascinating and engaging narrative setting: sperm competition in the context of totalitarian power. SIFF Cinema, Fri Nov 12 at 9:15 pm. 
