A Polish ex-soldier returns to his home town and takes on local gangsters in an exhausting barrage of violence in humourless action film

Here is a film from Poland that is proof that when a macho action hero has a canine sidekick, it makes him at least 64% more likable. The dog – a veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – is called Tiny. Her human is Maks (Eryk Lubos), a brooding loner who served 25 years in an elite special forces unit. Maks doesn’t say much and betrays less emotion than his dog. The pair of them live off-grid deep in the forest until, one wintry afternoon, news arrives that Maks’s father is dead.

Back in his home town, Maks is greeted like a returning hero. But after the funeral, before he can slip back into his lumberjack shirt, he disturbs a break-in at his father’s house. He instantly switches into fighting-machine mode,...