Unlike the myriad films that share its title, Scratch has nothing to do with DJs or dance parties—just disease, discomfort, and discord. But that’s marriage for you, or rather for Joanna (Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak) and Jan (Krzysztof Stroinski). In writer/director Michal Rosa’s plodding film, an anonymous party guest gifts Joanna with a videotape that launches the biology professor into an existential tailspin. According to the tape, the Polish Secret Police enlisted Jan to marry Joanna and inform on her father, a suspected Polish Communist Party leader. At first Joanna is skeptical of the allegations; Jan is a perfect companion, doting and supportive—but suddenly combative when Joanna’s investigation into their marriage goes too far. Joanna’s resultant metamorphosis seems as improbable as Rosa’s story arc, which relies more on magical realism than on character development. Expect long, artsy shots of the harried heroine smoking, moping, and watering plants in deep contemplation.

Monday at 8:45 p.m. Also at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, at the Avalon.