A detective’s investigation of a double murder which could involve a big tech company and its activist adversaries takes several twists in this Czech crime thriller set in the very near future.
I’m always happy to see foreign language takes on popular film genres – for example, Polish international crime-busting, or alien invasions who choose Russia instead of New York – and although they don’t always work perfectly (often because they aimed high with budgets only a fraction of those the US filmmakers have access to) it’s refreshing to come across something new.
Restore Point / Bod obnovy is a film from Czechia which will be available on VOD in both an English dubbed version and the original Czech version with English subtitles. Longtime readers will guess that this reviewer chose the subtitled version, and I challenge you to jump the 1” subtitle barrier and do the same.
Set in the very near future (2041 – a mere 2 decades from now), an intriguing idea is central to Restore Point / Bod obnovy; that humans have the ability to back themselves up every two days. If they die an ‘unnatural death’ (murdered, or the victim of a road accident for example) then it is possible for the person to be revived using their backup. If your backup was done longer than 48 hours ago, however, then you’re out of luck. The rules (and the science) say that this isn’t allowed – there are complications which are explained as the story progresses. What it does mean though is that if you forget, or are unable to do your backup for some reason, then that’s it. You know that the end is irreversible.
And so when police detective Em Trochinowska (Andrea Mohylová) becomes involved in a double murder case where the backups are apparently missing, she finds herself bouncing between high-level technology companies and their living-off-the-grid opponents while becoming a fugitive herself. In this respect, Restore Point is a solid police procedural – tricky and lively as the twists of the story unravel, and a good story with unreliable characters always keeps the viewer on their toes.
The near future setting allows the story to poke around at the ethics of big scientific companies playing God, point out that social demographics exclude part of the population from being able to afford the service and explain that those who can afford it could very easily abuse the system to gain further benefits from having been restored. The film certainly throws a lot in alongside its action sequences, and the irony of watching the film the day after my laptop unexpectedly gave up on me was not lost.
It’s perhaps unfair to mention other films while talking about a new release because comparisons could be detrimental – but purely to give the viewer an idea of the feeling of this Czech production, then Bladerunner, Minority Report, and even Children of Men spring to mind.
Restore Point is none of these though; it is absolutely doing its own thing and succeeds soundly in using an interesting premise in a decently-paced crime thriller. It also does a really good job of using what budget it had on some quite nifty screen effects and futuristic cityscapes.
This is writer/director Robert Hloz’s feature debut, and I hope he gets the opportunity to make more films because this is a great start!
Restore Point will be available in the US on VOD from XYZ Films on 8th February 2024.
A detective’s investigation of a double murder which could involve a big tech company and its activist adversaries takes several twists in this Czech crime thriller set in the very near future.
I’m always happy to see foreign language takes on popular film genres – for example, Polish international crime-busting, or alien invasions who choose Russia instead of New York – and although they don’t always work perfectly (often because they aimed high with budgets only a fraction of those the US filmmakers have access to) it’s refreshing to come across something new.
Restore Point / Bod obnovy is a film from Czechia which will be available on VOD in both an English dubbed version and the original Czech version with English subtitles. Longtime readers will guess that this reviewer chose the subtitled version, and I challenge you to jump the 1” subtitle barrier and do the same.
Set in the very near future (2041 – a mere 2 decades from now), an intriguing idea is central to Restore Point / Bod obnovy; that humans have the ability to back themselves up every two days. If they die an ‘unnatural death’ (murdered, or the victim of a road accident for example) then it is possible for the person to be revived using their backup. If your backup was done longer than 48 hours ago, however, then you’re out of luck. The rules (and the science) say that this isn’t allowed – there are complications which are explained as the story progresses. What it does mean though is that if you forget, or are unable to do your backup for some reason, then that’s it. You know that the end is irreversible.
And so when police detective Em Trochinowska (Andrea Mohylová) becomes involved in a double murder case where the backups are apparently missing, she finds herself bouncing between high-level technology companies and their living-off-the-grid opponents while becoming a fugitive herself. In this respect, Restore Point is a solid police procedural – tricky and lively as the twists of the story unravel, and a good story with unreliable characters always keeps the viewer on their toes.
The near future setting allows the story to poke around at the ethics of big scientific companies playing God, point out that social demographics exclude part of the population from being able to afford the service and explain that those who can afford it could very easily abuse the system to gain further benefits from having been restored. The film certainly throws a lot in alongside its action sequences, and the irony of watching the film the day after my laptop unexpectedly gave up on me was not lost.
It’s perhaps unfair to mention other films while talking about a new release because comparisons could be detrimental – but purely to give the viewer an idea of the feeling of this Czech production, then Bladerunner, Minority Report, and even Children of Men spring to mind.
Restore Point is none of these though; it is absolutely doing its own thing and succeeds soundly in using an interesting premise in a decently-paced crime thriller. It also does a really good job of using what budget it had on some quite nifty screen effects and futuristic cityscapes.
This is writer/director Robert Hloz’s feature debut, and I hope he gets the opportunity to make more films because this is a great start!
Restore Point will be available in the US on VOD from XYZ Films on 8th February 2024.
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