director Jerzy Stuhr
screenplay Jerzy Stuhr
director of photography Paweł Edelman
music Adam Nowak
with Jerzy Stuhr, Katarzyna Figura, Dominika Ostałowska, Irina Ałfiorowa, Karolina Ostrożna (child), Jerzy Nowak
awards (selection) European Film Prize nomination for Best Leading Role (Jerzy Stuhr), FIPRESCI Prize, OCIC Special Award at Venice Film Festival, 1997
Grand Prix at Newport Beach Film Festival, 1998
Grand Prix, Baltic Pearl for Jerzy Stuhr at Riga Film Festival, 1998
Silver Tape, award of the Italian Film Critics Association for Best Foreign Film in Italy, 1998
Grand Prix, Golden Lions for Best Film, Studio Cinema Award and Silver Ticket, award of the ‘Polish Cinema’ Association at the 22nd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 1997
Silver Grape and Journalists Prize at Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów, 1997
Audience Award for acting for Jerzy Stuhr at the Słupca Review of Films ‘Provinciality’, 1998
Tarnowska Film Award: Bronze Statue of Leliwita, 1998
Warsaw Marmaid (Syrenka Warszawska) – Film Critics Club SDP Award, 1997
[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]
School-mistress: Excuse me, but you can’t go in there. Sir… Father… if you would be so kind as to wait a minute here. I’ll call her in right away. Priest (to Magda): You see… Now it’s me who’s looking for you. Magda: I’ve no idea how they found out, really. I just informed the mistress, because I had to. Priest: But why did you bite her? For she tells me that you did. Magda: Because when I returned she told me I was starting up like a whore. So I told her I was looking for my father, but she said it couldn’t be true as I am bastard.
TOMASZ JOPKIEWICZ, 1997 – JERZY STUHR TALKS ABOUT LOVE [IN:] HISTORY OF THE POLISH CINEMA, ED. BY T. LUBELSKI, K. J. ZARĘBSKI [JERZY STUHR OPOWIADA O MIŁOŚCI, [W:], HISTORIA KINA POLSKIEGO], WARSZAWA 2006
Jerzy Stuhr considers himself to be a disciple and conceitfree continuer of the cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski. This is attested in particular by ‘Love Stories’ (…) which concentrate around the theme of rejection or acceptance of love (…). It was a risky undertaking as it was also conceived for the actor’s benefit: Stuhr played four leading characters. And he not only gave a display of entrancing technical virtuosity, but also meticulous and emotionally convincing pictures of people struggling with themselves and their feelings. (…) As a director, Stuhr managed to maintain the intimacy of those struggles.
history periods
