I, Olga Hepnarova (Já, Olga Hepnarová)

Czech Republic. Dir. Petr Kazda & Tomás Weinreb. 2016, 105 mins. With Michalina Olszanska, Martin Pechlát, Klára Melísková. Based on an infamous true crime that shocked Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, I, Olga Hepnarova is the riveting account of a woman driven to do the unthinkable. Michalina Olszanska delivers a performance of mesmerizing intensity in the title role, a young lesbian who is abused at home and bullied at school. Disillusioned with society, she plots her revenge upon the world—a horrifying act of violence that is unleashed on a fateful summer day in 1973. Strikingly shot in gritty black and white, this spare, unsettling character study immerses viewers in the damaged psyche of a woman on the edge.