Larysa Kondracki is good at giving tense stories room to develop. We rate the patient visual control of her television work, with a reservation about the familiar thriller plotting that makes her feature debut less convincing.
Fi1m perspective
The opening of Fifi, an episode of Better Call Saul (2015), lets a long, fluid shot hold our attention. We were absorbed by it, because the camera’s sustained movement gives us time to look closely. Kondracki’s control of composition is the attraction here, and a good reason to seek out her directing work. She can give a sequence visual distinction without needing to hurry it along. That patience fits a series whose pleasures often depend on waiting.
Her short Viko (2009) established an interest in sex-trafficking stories that continued into her feature debut, The Whistleblower (2010). On the latter, co-written with Eilis Kirwan, she approaches institutional complicity through a character-driven thriller. The committed ensemble performances make sense of that choice, giving a difficult subject people to care about. The plotting is less persuasive when it falls back on familiar thriller conventions. It is a useful starting point for understanding her interest in complicated behaviour, but not our first recommendation.
From 2012, episodic television became the main part of her work. Better Call Saul is the strongest recommendation we can make here, though it is important to be clear about what belongs to whom. We praised Bob Odenkirk’s funny, aggravating Jimmy McGill, the performances and the precise comic timing; those are shared achievements under showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Kondracki’s contribution is easier to identify in the visual assurance of Fifi. The series takes time to get started, but this is directing that makes sustained attention feel worthwhile.
Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) gave her responsibility as both director and showrunner, with a whole miniseries to keep coherent. Her concern with composition sits alongside the less conspicuous work of holding tone and story together across episodes. That gives us more to consider than how well she fits into an established programme. Start with her Better Call Saul work for the clearest demonstration of what she can do with a camera.
Biography
Larysa Kondracki is a Canadian director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Toronto, she studied English literature and theatre at McGill University before completing an MFA in film directing at Columbia University.
Her debut feature, The Whistleblower (2010), for which she also wrote the screenplay, received six Genie Award nominations including for Best Picture and Best Director. She has directed episodes of numerous television series, including Better Call Saul (two episodes), The Walking Dead, The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire, Gotham and Legion.
