Woman from the Provinces

^director Andrzej Barański
^screenplay (based on the novel of the same name by Waldemar Siemiński) Andrzej Barański
^{director of photography} Ryszard Lenczewski
^music Henryk Kuźniak
^with Ewa Dałkowska, Ryszarda Hanin, Bożena Dykiel, Kazimierz Wichniarz, Aleksander Fogiel
^awards
 FIPRESCI Prize and prize of the Young Cinema Forum at the International Film Festival in West Berlin, 1986
 Jury Special Prize for the film and Individual Prize, Bronze Lions for the music, Journalists Award (in special recognition of Ewa Dałkowska’s role) at the 10th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1985
 Warsaw Mermaid (Syrenka Warszawska) – Film Critics Club SDP Award, 1985

WALDEMAR SIEMIŃSKI, WOMAN FROM THE PROVINCES [KOBIETA Z PROWINCJI], 1987

I just struggled along. I used to collect rags and cuttings; I dyed them, made them over and sold them. I like to think out things, create things and work at ease. Then I feel free and happy. (…) Sometimes I just feel divinely joyful. These are very short moments but they come quite often. Maybe they are flashes of happy childhood? Because sometimes on big holiday, when I’m resting, I long for my mother, father, family – there are only four of us left in Luźmierz, four sisters

ALEKSANDER JACKIEWICZ, MY LIFE IN CINEMA [MOJE ŻYCIE W KINIE], ‘KINO’, 1988, NO. 7

Barański calls his productions a kind of ethnographic examination. This is also true of the book by Siemiński on which the director draws. What a read! What a great person to listen to! (…) And it’s all there in the film. Anna, played by Ewa Dałkowska, and her story. Her inclination towards the past has psychological and ‘biological’ justification; it is a journey to the roots at the end of her life. (…) Poverty is Anna’s inseparable companion. Besides, she has survived two wars. She has witnessed the slaughter of Jews. She has known fear.(…) Barański likes to see the world in separate pieces as each of them ‘pulsates with drama’. No wonder than that he was attracted to Anna and her ‘looking at time from the position of a ‘historical ant’.’