Traditional folk music knows no musical notes; it lives and plays as long as its performers, of whom fewer and fewer remain. In The Agony, we witness this world dissolving through the eyes of vocalist and instrumentalist Adam Strug. This is a cinematic story of an attempt at stopping time, but it also about the gradual distortion of what once had been a multifarious musical experience and how the authentic is eaten away and simplified by the commercial. The Agony is a road movie, taking its viewers across Poland’s regions and numerous musical traditions. This is a multilayered story about love, bitterness, life and passing.