You wouldn’t think a film about cardiology in Poland would be such a kick, but Bogowie (“Gods” in Polish) is a fast-paced, soapy pleasure, sort of like ER or Grey’s Anatomy, but with the 1980s setting adding a judicious dollop of iron-curtain period kitsch. Tomasz Kot plays Zbigniew Religa, the doctor who performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland after battling opposition from colleagues and struggling to set up his own clinic. A big, strapping bear of man who chain-smokes throughout (those were the days), he tools about the country in a fabulous lime-green tin can of a car and won’t give up on a patient. A brightly limned roster of supporting characters, from tough-cookie nurses to patrician superiors, orbit about him, snapping out great chunks of medical dialogue. The film-making is a bit old-fashioned, especially the swelling orchestral score, but it tells a fascinating story well and ably captures a specific time and place in medical history.
