Agnieszka Holland, long a favorite for her uncompromising filmmaking on diverse political subjects as well as long form episodic television looks at the subject of animal rights through the lens of one upper middle aged woman living a solitary life in the Polish countryside. The film is achingly beautiful, harsh, romantic, multi-generational and quiet. It makes its point without histrionics even though Duszejko (Janine, but she won't let you call her that) has a number of very public meltdowns as the hunters in her village continue to lay waste to deer, hedgehogs, raccoons and even her beloved dogs.

It is not knee jerk, and though it will please PETA, it approaches from the personal rather than the didactic. The suppression of any art is not a good thing. The suppression of animals is not a good thing. When these two things come up against each other, as in the recent Guggenheim Chinese Art exhibit debacle, its anyone's guess as to how to adjudicate.

But watching depictions of animal cruelty is the same thing to me as watching child cruelty: I must turn away.