director Agnieszka Holland
screenplay Agnieszka Holland, Maciej Karpiński
director of photography Jacek Petrycki
music Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz
with Maria Chwalibóg, Bogusław Linda, Paweł Witczak (child)
awards
Jury Special Prize, Bronze Lions for Maria Chwalibóg and Bogusław Linda for Best Leading Role at the 12th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 1988
[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]
Jacek: A cripple like me… Irka: You’re too young for me. I’ve got a child and… Jacek: I’m not as young as I look. Irka: I don’t know how to talk with people. I haven’t talked to anyone for a long time. Jacek: I’ve never in my life met a good woman like you. I don’t know what I’ll do if you turn me down. Irka: I’m not turning you down. Jacek: Kiss me, please.
JANUSZ WRÓBLEWSKI, THE STONY WORLD [KAMIENNY ŚWIAT], ‘KINO’, 1989, NO. 6
This film, produced in 1981 and released seven years later, tells of that part of society which is most ignored, most defenceless and pushed to the margins. It is a story of degradation, humiliation and depriving people of their right to exist. Irena and Jacek are weak because they lack support. They are doomed to die the same way as they have lived – in a hurry, overwhelmed by the burden of everyday life. (…) Holland’s attitude to reality has an ethical dimension and shows that a community falls apart proportionally to our indifference to calls for values and sense.
history periods
