Last year’s Polish crime-movie import Kobiety Mafii (Mafia Women) took nearly £900,000 at the box office in the UK and Ireland, which seems pretty remarkable for a number of reasons. Obviously, it demonstrates the size of the UK Polish community and how keen they are to see movies in cinemas, as opposed to waiting to catch this on another platform. Either that, or there’s a heck of a lot of non-Polish people very keen on sprawling, violent comedy melodramas with sizable ensembles that focus on female characters not afraid to get grisly.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A scene from Kobiety Mafii 2 (Women of Mafia 2). Photograph: Kino Świat

This sequel, directed, like Kobiety Mafii, by Patryk Vega, makes few concessions to those who didn’t see the last one, but it’s not that hard to get up to speed. Nanny turned crime lord Daria (Agnieszka Dygant) has arranged for a huge shipment of cocaine to come over from Colombia, but some rival outfit hijacks the ship, leaving Daria’s Colombian contacts in jeopardy. Aida (Angie Cepeda), Daria’s connection in South America, is so ruthless that when her husband is being held by thugs at gunpoint, instead of dropping her automatic weapon she just kills hubby and all the baddies in one spray of bullets. Elsewhere, bimbo Anna (Kasia Warnke, an adept comedian), another returning character from the first film, survives prison by learning Thai boxing from her cellmate, and becomes a celebrity overnight.

It’s all very hectic, and clearly Vega doesn’t have a problem crunching the tonal gears as he shifts from broad satirical comedy to gore-splattered violence, suggesting he may have a bit of a style crush on the likes of Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. But nevertheless, there’s budget here to play with, and the result is weirdly entertaining at times.