Colors of Evil: Red (Kolory zła: Czerwień) revolves around a murder case in which a prosecutor teams up with the victim’s mother to catch the culprit. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Leopold Bilski from the DA’s office is assigned to the murder case of a girl whose body is found on a beach.
Dubiela, the forensic expert, identifies the girl as Monika Bogucka. Dubiela is having an affair with Helena, Monika’s mother, and his son, Mario, was friends with Monika.
Monika was physically and sexually assaulted before she was killed. The detail that stands out in her case is the fact that her lips were cut off before her body was dumped.
Bilski’s superior informs him about a similar case in which Adrian Jakubiak, the partner of the victim, Żaneta, was found guilty.
As Jakubiak recently got out of prison, he becomes the lead suspect in Monika’s case. Additionally, Monika’s bloodied t-shirt is found at Jakubiak’s house.
Jakubiak is arrested, but he insists that he is being framed again, just like he was in the murder case of Żaneta.
Realizing that he will be going to prison again, Jakubiak takes his own life, which leads Bilski to consider whether Jakubiak was indeed telling the truth.
Although Bilski’s superior instructs him to close the case, Bilski continues investigating and discovers that Żaneta and Monika both worked at a club called Shipyard.
Soon after, Helena overhears her husband, Roman, questioning someone on the phone about Monika’s murder and grows suspicious of him.
She follows him and sees him meeting with a man, who turns out to be a gangster named Łukasz Kazarski.
She then goes through her husband’s belongings and discovers that he is managing Kazarski’s illegal businesses.
Helena contacts Bilski and tells him that the Shipyard Club is owned by Kazarski’s Cyprus company and that her husband is working for him.
Bilski had earlier found a picture of Żaneta with Kazarski. Convinced of Kazarski’s involvement, Bilski asks the officers in charge of Monika’s case to reopen the investigation.
When Helena talks to Dubiela about the case, Dubiela shows Bilski the file of a woman he autopsied three years ago. Her injuries were similar to those of Monika and Żaneta.
This third victim also worked at the Shipyard Club, and her body was found near the club. Bilski now suspects that Kazarski has killed several women.
Helena visits the club to investigate on her own. When she starts asking questions about Monika, the bartender drugs her.
Kazarsk’s people at the club have no intention of letting her leave. However, Helena manages to escape because she is warned by a woman, who also instructs her on how to get away.
Bilski then manages to find Monika’s boyfriend, who also works at the club. He is armed, but he does not make a move to shoot Bilski.
As Bilski tries to reason with Monika’s boyfriend, one of the officers, named Spider, shoots him dead.
Monika’s boyfriend could have led them to the truth, but Spider killed their only lead, leaving Bilski and Helena disappointed.
Ending explained:
Kazarski’s association with Monika’s case
Helena finally confronts her husband about his involvement with Kazarski. Since Helena already knows some details, Roman decides to tell her everything.
It is revealed that while bartending at the club, Monika dealt drugs for her boyfriend. One day, she caught Kazarski’s attention, leading to him inviting her and her boyfriend to his house.
There, Monika witnessed him kill a man after mutilating his body. Monika wanted to stay away from Kazarski after the incident, but she could not do that.
Kazarski had decided to marry her and started sexually assaulting her with her boyfriend’s help.
Monika eventually went to the police to report him, but the officer she reported the crimes to was working for Kazarski and informed him about it.
This officer was none other than Spider, who is one of the two officers in charge of Monika’s murder case. Spider took her to Kazarski’s house, where the assaults continued.
Furthermore, Kazarski sent compromising photographs of Monika to Roman and coerced him into working for him, promising to leave Monika alone in return.
A few days before her body was found, Roman found out about everything his daughter had endured when Monika decided to speak to him.
Roman gave her money and asked her to go somewhere safe, not letting her tell even him where she was going, but Kazarski still found her and killed her.
When Roman accused him of killing Monika, Kazarski denied it and threatened to harm Helena if Roman went to the police.
The evidence against Kazarski
As Roman has been working for Kazarski, he has incriminating evidence against him, but he kept it to himself because he did not know whom he could trust.
Helena asks Roman to trust Bilski, and Roman hands over the evidence to Bilski, despite knowing that he will be disbarred for managing Kazarski’s illegal businesses.
Bilski arrests Kazarski and gets a warrant to search his house. Now, all Bilski needs to do is find evidence linking Kazarski to the murders as well.
Spider has plans to help Kazarski escape, but Bilski, suspecting that Spider is a corrupt officer, foils their plan.
The police search through Kazarski’s house and bar but do not find the lips of the victims, which Kazarski should have kept as mementos.
Bilski then has the idea to go through everything Kazarski had on his person when he was arrested, and he finally finds the lips of Kazarski’s victims; Kazarski had woven them together into a bracelet.
Spider, who is suspected of framing Jakubiak twice, is killed in a gunfire exchange when the police go to arrest him.
The truth about Monika’s murder
Monika’s case is closed, but her lips are never found. Bilski assumes that Kazarski did not have the time to add them to his bracelet.
Bilski meets Helena, who thanks him for his work. Bilski tells her that his daughter’s name is also Monika, which explains his determination to solve Monika’s case.
Helena tells Bilski that she is going to Sobieszewska Island. Later that day, when she is with Dubiela, Mario reveals that his father is hiding something from her.
Helena then finds Monika’s ring, which Monika never took off, on Mario’s desk. The ring was not found on Monika’s body.
Helena tries to leave without making Dubiela suspicious, but she is visibly shaken by the realization that Dubiela had something to do with her daughter’s death.
Dubiela catches on and ties her up in the basement. Meanwhile, Bilski is bothered by the fact that Kazarski still denies killing Monika.
Helena had previously asked Bilski about the ring, and when he sees a woman wearing a ring, he suddenly recalls seeing Monika’s ring with Mario.
While Bilski rushes to get to Helena, she manages to untie herself. As she tries to sneak out of the house, Helena is stopped by Dubiela, who is armed with a gun.
It turns out that Monika had sought Mario’s help when her father asked her to go into hiding. Mario had brought her to his father’s house on Sobieszewska Island.
As she considered him her friend, she confided in him about her trauma, but he ended up forcing himself on her. He killed Monika during the ensuing struggle.
Mario then called Dubiela, who decided to cover up his son’s crime instead of calling the police. Dubiela knew about Jakubiak getting parole and framed him for Monika’s murder.
It was Dubiela who cut off Monika’s lips before dumping her body in the ocean. Mario wanted to turn himself in, but Dubiela did not let him do that.
Dubiela believes that Mario deliberately left Monika’s ring on his desk because he wanted Helena to find it. After confessing the truth to Helena, Dubiela shoots himself.
Bilski arrives then and calls the police. At the same time, Mario is seen going to the police station to confess his crime.