director Filip Bajon
screenplay Filip Bajon
director of photography Wit Dąbal
music Zdzisław Szostak
with Janusz Gajos, Mirosława Marcheluk, Halina Gryglaszewska, Dorota Stalińska, Bogusław Sochnacki
awards
Main Award, Silver Lions (together with ‘The Shivers’ and ‘In Broad Daylight’), Individual Prizes, Bronze Lions, for Janusz Gajos (Best Actor) and Mirosława Marcheluk (Best Actress), Honorary Commendations for screenplay and for art direction for Andrzej Przeworski (together with his art direction in the film ‘Fever’) and for editing (for Irena Choryńska, together with her editing for the film ‘Voices’) at the 8th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1981
Grand Prix, the Great Jantar at ‘Youth and Film’, Film Meetings in Koszalin, 1981
[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]
Michał: Can’t you say ‘no’, just once? Refuse to make that tea? Sister: You have to wash down your pills. Michał: Maybe then I wouldn’t wash them down at all. I might go to the station, look at trains, buy a newspaper… Sister: Go ahead, then. Michał: You know I can’t. Sister: You have simply depression. Michał: My dear, don’t use words which you don’t understand. You can’t say ‘depression’ because then you’re thinking ‘cucumber’. How can a normal person be interested in raising just one cucumber? How can you keep walking around counting those pills? Don’t you feel ashamed?
PIOTR MIKUCKI, ABOUT WHAT IS NOT THERE [O TYM CZEGO NIE MA], ‘FILM’, 1981, NO. 32
The film has various interpretations. One might read: ideological Freud. Our existence is shaped within the first five years of our life. What determined the main character was being abandoned by his mother – a former heroine of socialist labour – in favour of the ideological monster. (…) The film strictly follows the convention of realism with grotesque elements which assumes symbolic meanings with the use of quite real props. The tone is different, but the method is the same as Forman’s.
history periods
