---
title: "Hot Spot"
year: 2026
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/hot-spot"
fi1m_id: "hot-spot"
imdb_id: "tt14119302"
tmdb_id: 813418
wikidata_id: "Q138857118"
fi1m_score: 48
critics_reviews: 2
published: "2026-10-10T04:10:58.136159+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-10T04:10:58.723983+00:00"
region: "HK"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Hot Spot (2026)

Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska · 1h 41m · Science Fiction, Action, Crime, Fantasy, Thriller

## Identity

Hot Spot

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/hot-spot
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** hot-spot
- **IMDb ID:** tt14119302
- **TMDB ID:** 813418
- **Wikidata ID:** Q138857118
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14119302/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/813418, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138857118

**Fi1m score: 48** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* Red light, blue light, a witch and a man called Jan 623; the lighting is the only one who knows the plan

> Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s science-fiction thriller is lit in red and blue like a nightclub at the end of the world, and we could not tell you with confidence what happens in it. There is a concert worth the evening; the story around it is not.

## Synopsis

Jan 623 (Andrzej Konopka) is a man with a number where a surname should be, living under a system that, as the film keeps telling us, is unstable. Over the first act he crosses paths with Rana (Noomi Rapace) and Ayka (Reika Kirishima), and with a younger group that includes Maria (Filippa Kaye), Zen (George Aurimas Cris) and Bossa (Niki Sereti). One of the women tells him he can call her Witch. There is a soldier (Thanasis Barkas), a journey by train, and a concert staged under red and blue light. The film does not say at first what the number means, or what Rana and Ayka want from him, and it keeps that back for most of its 101 minutes.

## Review

Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s *Hot Spot* is a science-fiction thriller that runs 101 minutes and spends most of them declining to tell you what it is about. The tagline reads “The system is unstable”, and that is as much of a premise as the film is prepared to hand over. Robert Bolesto’s script gives us a man called Jan 623 (Andrzej Konopka), a woman called Rana (Noomi Rapace), a woman called Ayka (Reika Kirishima), a soldier, a train and a concert, and leaves us to make the connections ourselves. Our verdict is that the connections are not there to be made, and that a good deal of what surrounds them is worth looking at anyway.

The looking is the reason to come. Jakub Kijowski lights nearly everything in red and blue, two colours that rarely share a frame in nature and here share almost every one, so that faces come out half warm and half cold and the smoke between them turns purple. The concert is where it all pays off. Marcin Macuk and Zuzanna Wrońska’s music builds from a low hum to a full-throated noise, Kijowski’s lights swing with it, and for ten minutes we forgot that we had no idea who anyone was and were simply glad to watch. That is an honest reaction and we own it. It is also the only stretch of the film in which image, sound and cutting are doing the same thing at the same time.

Konopka plays Jan 623 as a man who has been given a number and has not yet worked out whether to resent it, and he is good at the not-yet; a lot of the film is his face waiting for information that never arrives. Rapace plays Rana as someone entirely certain of things the audience cannot see, and it works best in the scene where she announces that we may call her Witch. Kirishima has the quietest part and gives the best account of herself, mostly by refusing to raise her voice when the lighting does. Anna Anosowicz’s production design puts them in corridors and halls that look like a public building nobody has finished paying for, which is the right look for a system that is coming apart.

The trouble is the story, or the editing, since it is hard from the outside to say which failed first. Beata Liszewska cuts the film as a series of arrivals: Jan is on the train, then he is at the concert, then he is somewhere else, and the scenes do not tell us how one led to the next. By the halfway mark we were lost, and by the final third we were cross about being lost, because a film this deliberately strange has to earn its strangeness with some logic underneath, and Bolesto’s script keeps that logic in its pocket. The second half takes turns we will not describe, partly on principle and partly because we are not confident we could.

Smoczyńska and Bolesto made *The Lure* in 2015, a mermaid musical set in a Warsaw nightclub that was every bit as odd as this and twice as clear, because it had a story about two sisters and never lost sight of it. Her later *The Silent Twins* kept the same grip. Here the grip is gone. The images are hers and the appetite for the lurid is hers, but the sisters, or anything else to hold on to, have been replaced by a man with a number and a system that is unstable.

The few critics who have written so far are split between mixed and hostile, and we land between them. See it if the red-and-blue lighting and a good loud concert sound like an evening, and go in expecting to be baffled rather than told. At home you can rewind, which will not help.

*Fi1m score 48, published 10 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Hot Spot worth watching?**

*Hot Spot* is worth watching only for its red-and-blue lighting and one loud, well-staged concert; we scored it 48. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's thriller keeps its story in its pocket for most of its 101 minutes, and we were lost by the halfway mark. Go in expecting to be baffled rather than told, or do not go in.

**How long is Hot Spot, and what is it rated?**

*Hot Spot* runs 1h 41m. It is a science fiction and action film.

**Where can I watch Hot Spot in Hong Kong?**

*Hot Spot* is not on any streaming or rental service in Hong Kong at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Hot Spot, and is it suitable for children?**

*Hot Spot* is unrated in the UK and carries an R in the US, so it is not a film for children. Our review records nothing about violence or frights; the lurid part is the lighting, a nightclub at the end of the world, and a plot adults will struggle to follow, let alone younger viewers.

**What should I watch after Hot Spot?**

After *Hot Spot*, try [*Holy Motors*](https://film.one/film/holy-motors) (2012, Fi1m 84): Carax’s night-ride through Paris makes no sense either, and earns every minute of it. Then [*Tetsuo: The Iron Man*](https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man) (1989, Fi1m 82): Sixty-seven minutes of Japanese metal and noise; plot optional, nerve not; and [*Under the Skin*](https://film.one/film/under-the-skin) (2013, Fi1m 81): Glazer withholds everything and still leaves you certain of what you saw.

### Reviews we read (2)

- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The review’s verdict cannot be determined from the inaccessible page. No praise or complaint can be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/movies/hot-spot-review.html)
- **The AV Club**, Monica Castillo (D): Castillo finds the film visually striking but narratively incoherent and frustrating to follow. She praises the red-blue lighting and trippy imagery, especially during a concert, while criticizing the muddled story and excessive stylistic choices. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/hot-spot-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Agnieszka Smoczyńska
- **Director:** Agnieszka Smoczyńska
- **Writer:** Robert Bolesto
- **Cinematography:** Jakub Kijowski
- **Editor:** Beata Liszewska
- **Music:** Zuzanna Wrońska, Marcin Macuk
- **Production design:** Anna Anosowicz
- **Producer:** Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Bogna Szewczyk-Skupień, Gregory Jankilevitsch
- **Cast:** Andrzej Konopka as Jan 623; Noomi Rapace as Rana; Reika Kirishima as Ayka; Filippa Kaye as Maria; George Aurimas Cris as Zen; Niki Sereti as Bossa; Ektor Liatsos as TseTse; Rasmi Tsopela as Granny
- **Runtime:** 1h 41m
- **First release (Canada):** 24 July 2026
- **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Crime, Fantasy, Thriller
- **Budget:** $6 million
- **Box office:** $256,350
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x54MPGBWXA8

## Where to watch in Hong Kong

Not streaming, renting or buying in Hong Kong at the last check.

Also available in: CA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Lure* (2015): Smoczyńska’s mermaid musical: the same lurid eye, with a story it never drops.
- *Holy Motors* (2012), Fi1m 84: Carax’s night-ride through Paris makes no sense either, and earns every minute of it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/holy-motors.md)
- *Tetsuo: The Iron Man* (1989), Fi1m 82: Sixty-seven minutes of Japanese metal and noise; plot optional, nerve not. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man.md)
- *Under the Skin* (2013), Fi1m 81: Glazer withholds everything and still leaves you certain of what you saw. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/under-the-skin.md)
- *Alphaville* (1965), Fi1m 78: Godard built a dystopia out of present-day Paris and a torch; still unsettling. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/alphaville.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/hot-spot