‘Closure’ review: Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival winner is sombre, humanistic study of loss

Dir: Michal Marczak. Poland/France. 2026. 108mins

Sixteen-year-old Chris was last seen standing on a bridge over Poland’s River Vistula in May 2023, before the CCTV camera trained on him turned away. When it turned back, he was gone. Michael Marczak’s sombre and humanistic documentary follows Chris’s father Daniel through the turbulent ebb and flow of his profound grief and uncertainty, as he obsessively searches for his son’s body. “He didn’t even say goodbye,” he laments, as he lives through every parent’s worst nightmare.

The filmmaker also immerses himself in Daniel’s quest

Marczak’s previous film All These Sleepless Nights (2016) took home the directing award at Sundance and he’s continuing that winning form with Closure, which has picked up the Golden Alexander in Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival’s International Competition. It’s the latest stop on a festival run that began at Sundance and has also taken in True/False in Missouri, and this sensitive and cinematic film should travel further – even though the subject may not be the easiest sell to audiences.

Daniel, along with his wife Agnieszka and other son Patryk, is trying to navigate the limbo of not knowing – an uncertainty not just about whether Chris is alive or dead but why, even if he did not take his own life, he chose to leave them behind. Family and friends join Daniel on his boat, hunting the depths of the Vistula and scouring its banks with a metal detector, in the hopes of finding some trace of Chris. Cutting edge technology is employed, including drones and trackers, but Daniel is even willing to try the old fashioned method of throwing bread in the water in case it leads to success. Others have ended their lives in the river and so grim discoveries are made. Marczak handles the material carefully, focusing on the visceral reaction of the search team rather than invading the privacy of the dead.

The way Marczak eases gently into the story, gradually allowing news snippets to reveal what has happened, puts us right with Daniel in the heart of his grief. His search seems in some ways futile but, simultaneously, his continued diligence in the face of the odds is a courageous rebuttal of defeat. Marczak focuses on this heartbroken father, often letting his face fill the frame so that every glimmer of his conflict is visible. But the filmmaker also immerses himself in Daniel’s quest, plunging the camera in and out of the murky, implacable waters of the Vistula or lifting it up on a drone so that we can see the scale of the enormity of the task the grieving father has set himself. Marczak is also alert to the emotions of the wider family – including Daniel’s father, who is experiencing a sort of double grief as he watches his son grapple with loss.

The trust Daniel has in Marczak, who also took on cinematography duties, is evident throughout, and particularly when the filmmaker acts as a confidante. In chats by a fire Daniel lights by the river, Marczak prompts him to reveal thoughts about family and feelings that are profound but unforced. It’s Marczak, too, who introduces the subject of Chris’s TikTok history, which gives Daniel another river – this time of information – to search, leading Closure to touch on social media issues. A score from Pawel Mykietyn that weaves in additional music from William Basinski, Hildur Gudnadottir and others, throbs with strings and electro rumbles like an accompanying current of sadness.

Marczak’s film becomes not just a document of a hunt but a psychological portrait of loss and a family’s attempts to come to terms with that. As the months roll by and milestones approach, Daniel knows his search is obsessive and yet still feels compelled to do it. Marczak shows how helping others may not offer closure but at least a way ahead.