Director

Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert

Poland, Germany | 2020 | 115 min | Polish, Russian

• Producer Agnieszka Wasiak, Mariusz Włodarski, Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert, Viola Fügen, Michael Weber
• Production Company Lava Films, Match Factory Productions, Kino Świat,, Di Factory, Bayerischer Rundfunk
• Screenplay Michał Englert, Małgorzata Szumowska
• Cinematography Michał Englert
• Editing Jaroslaw Kaminski, Agata Cierniak
• Sound Marcin Kasiński, Kacper Habisiak, Marcin Jachyra
• Cast Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska, Agata Kulesza, Weronika Rosati, Katarzyna Figura, Andrzej Chyra
• Contacts

  The Match Factory

  info@matchfactory.de

About the Film

This may be one of the strangest films of the year, but those familiar with Szumowska's work won't be surprised by her selections and choice of aesthetics. She has already come a long way in creating astonishments of different colors through films that have always taken the roads less traveled. Her latest was created in partnership with Michał Englert, director of photography and screenwriter with whom she has collaborated on several films.

A young man named Zenia (Alec Utgoff) crosses the Ukrainian border towards Bologna. This is who we see walking around with a massage table. We will get to know him, scene after scene, before he snatches the whole film and becomes its hero and magician. Everything will revolve around him, much like Terence Stamp in Pasolini’s Teorema. We are in the presence of a charismatic figure who will move from house to house in a residential area on the outskirts of Warsaw, hosting an elite group of wealthy residents.

Much can be said about this tightly wound sect whose members are suspiciously similar— despite their different forms of suffering, which Zenia is bound to witness as a result of his constant contact with them. The premise, however, remains that everyone will fall under Zenia’s magic and his charm, which is a mixture of cruelty and tenderness, making him a masseur with distinction, a guardian angel of sorts, the social reformer who intervenes in every aspect of every troubling matter. To the movie and to the townspeople, Zenia brings what they lack, the most imperative of which is happiness. It is their belief that he will bring them this rare coin, while they are sitting in their luxurious homes, immersed in their boring existence, within walls that block the echoes of a distant world.

With rare dexterity, Szumowska crafts a tale rich in details of authority, tolerance, and hope; all in a cinematic style that is unique and allows for political, social, and artistic readings.

Hauvick Habéshian