Katarzyna Taras
Sensuality vs festered form - Polish Films Competition Camerimage 2013

I once wrote that creating a festival program is comparable to composing a narration. It is an extraordinary situation to create a program of Polish films section, assessed only by foreign jury, which then becomes a flagship of what in the Polish cinema of the last season is the most interesting, valuable and intriguing regarding the visual side - as the whole thing takes place at the festival of the art of cinematography. So ... What would we like to tell the viewers (including foreigners) about this year? Is there any principle governing this mosaic? Even though I am writing this essay, I do not extort the right to impose any interpretation “what this film is about"; more than that, I wish to suggest what one should look for in the section recommended by us.

If I were to describe, as laconically as possible, what is going to happen in the Polish films competition, I would say that sensuality will rival with festered form. Films of the first type are In Hiding (cin. Łukasz Gutt, dir. Jan Kidawa- Błoński) and In the Name Of ... (cin. Michał Englert, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska). The festered form (I use this epithet while being perfectly aware that impressionistic works were once described in the same way, yet in this case, I do not have in mind any of those references or borrowings) is represented by Traffic Department (cin. Piotr Sobociński Jr., dir. Wojtek Smarzowski), Last Floor (cin. Tomasz Augustynek, dir. Tadeusz Król) and Viva Belarus! (cin. Witold Stok, dir. Krzysztof Łukaszewicz). Exceptions confirming the aforementioned (governing) principle are A Girl from the Wardrobe (cin. Arkadiusz Tomiak, dir. Bodo Kox) and In the Shadow (cin. Adam Sikora, dir. David Ondricek).

Still from "In the Shadow"
Let me start from the last one, which can only be interpreted as a beautiful and successful tribute to the most cinematic genre in the history of the cinema - film noir. In the Shadow is a film noir, though already trimmed according to sensitivity and expectations of a contemporary viewer. The main character, captain Hakl (Ivan Trojan), derives from film noir; more than an officer of the system (the setting is Prague in 1953, right before the monetary reform) he is genuine cop, so he treats someone else's affairs as his own and does not allow to blame the robberies on the innocent who seem to qualify best as scapegoats. The story of a character like Hakl required the film noir stylistics, though it is also plausible that through such reference nostalgia and longing for the order and justice were supposed to be displayed - the values for which there was no space in the reality after 1945 on the territories dependent on Big Brother. In the Shadow is a beautiful, fine, nostalgic film.

We can meet a similar character, although set in a more modern (Warsaw) scenery, in Traffic Department, in which film the last man of justice is staff sergeant Ryszard Król (Bartłomiej Topa), who one day decides to restore order in the world but, in contrast to Hakl, his motives are more personal. The amount of formats used during the making of the film both astonishes and impresses, yet what amazes even more is the talent of the cinematographer to unite all the components into a homogenous, convincing and hypnotizing, although festered, wholeness.

Still from "Viva Belarus!"
The filmmakers behind Viva Belarus!, a film from beyond the mainstream of Polish cinema, assumed alike - that dirt and lawlessness cannot be portrayed with “pretty pictures". I read this inspired by facts and shaking us out of our state of complacency film as a reminder of what genuine regime is. In the cinema it does not always have to be pretty - it is more important to be sincere. And this goal has been achieved here. The cinematographer behind the story of the price of resistance to the system in Belarus is the coworker of such prominent artists as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Wiszniewski and Edward Żebrowski, namely - Witold Stok. With the first one he made, already legendary, (I do not fancy the word “cult") documentary films, such as: Railway Station, Seven Women of Different Ages, finally From a Night Porter's Point of View; and cult (oh, let it be!) Personnel. With Wiszniewski - A Story of a Man Who Filled 552% Of The Quota, and with Żebrowski - In Broad Daylight (a stylish adaptation of Władysław Terlecki's novel "Zwierzęta zostały opłacone"), awarded at Gdynia Film Festival in 1981 for the Best Cinematography.

Among the “festered" set I also include produced on 16-mm reel Last Floor, created, comparably to Łukaszewicz's film, out of inspiration with true events, and also from beyond the mainstream. What impresses most in the story of captain Derczyński (Janusz Chabior), is mainly the masterly shot epilogue (again inspired by film noir, I believe), consequent manipulation with colours and extremely dynamic, as for the story about madness befits, camera work. Because Derczyński's story is one of madness of a man whose world collapsed within several days. The power of this modest film lies in our lack of certainty whether Derczyński was only a monster throwing chauvinistic slogans and terrorizing his family, or rather a sick person, or maybe someone unfulfilled in every aspect of his existence, whose condition severed when everything he believed in had let him down? Anyway, I do not feel disgust for him, I pity the man. Last Floor is distinguished against a background of other Polish films portraying the present times by the fact that Augustynek and Król focused on changes (both those only personal, and those significant political ones) connected with the breakthrough of 1989 and experienced by people from such hermetic groups as professional soldiers and their families, the representatives of a community which most fiercely suffered from the tremor of status quo.

Still from "The Girl from the Wardrobe"
Before I move to, as I called them, sensual films, I need to mention A Girl from the Wardrobe, in which Arkadiusz Tomiak and Bodo Kox told a credible story of an incredible relationship between two outcasts, and about the fact that love, indeed, gives freedom, but often requires crossing some boundaries. Three characters, three ways of seeing and understanding the world, love and responsibility, and all of this united, with characteristic of Arkadiusz Tomiak's breathtaking mastery, into a consistent vision of reality, in which coexistence of airships, skyscrapers and jungle within the confines of a small flat does not surprise.

Among all the films created by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert duet, I definitely like best the etude Silence. The artists have come back after some years to already portrayed space and in such conditions In the Name Of... was made; a deep and wise parable about loneliness, which cannot be soothed by the beauty of the world - for a long time I have not seen images with so much admiration for the universe's charm - but by another man.

Still from "In Hiding"
Finally, In Hiding, in which cinematography serves as a counterpoint for reality Janka (Magdalena Boczarska) lives in. Although there is occupation and ghetto in Radom is being liquidated, what we see is so admirable. In Hiding is not a film about love but about an infatuation phase when the world seems to be a much more beautiful place. It is while being infatuated when we become possessive, it is then when we wish to subordinate the other person to us. Yet, love itself is freedom, as wise people say: When you love somebody, set them free. Love is not appropriation, however, the Polish girl, Janka, wants to appropriate a Jewish girl, Estera (Julia Pogrebińska), her past, dreams, even the myth that saves her - faith that her beloved Dawid (Tomasz Kot) is alive and waiting. But again, it is Janka who gives in to emotion in a much stronger way since she is able to disavow her own father, and then even to kill. In Hiding is a story of a relation between an executioner and a victim; yet, it is the executioner who pays the bigger price here, she gives in more easily, she needs the presence of another man more. The situation was similar in Munk'sPassenger. It is difficult not to ponder over the intentions of the female characters: Janka fell in love because she needed that, because she was finally given a chance to feel something that shook her out of her nightmare; and Estera? It was her who initiated the intimate contact. Did she treat her relationship with Janka only as a whim, or did she notice in it a chance for salvation? Or maybe she just wanted to feel something before her death - something Marek Edelman mentioned when he was describing moods in Warsaw ghetto. In Hiding is a great example of great cooperation between the cinematographer and people responsible for costumes and make-up, and also the actress - Boczarska's character is beautiful only when she is with Estera. She gets prettier only by her female lover's side or maybe only for her she can (wants) to be pretty? Another value of this film is that the great history serves here only as a background, that Jan Kidawa-Błoński tells about things most intimate, reminds that in the times of raging terror the biggest dramas were taking place inside homes, between a bathroom and a room utilized also as a kitchen - as it was said in one of Has' films.

This year I do not write in particular about what tools were used in order to create each of the films, as I gave in to the stories in which cinematography shall serve sufficiently.