Zofia Stafiej, Kinga Preis, Cosmina Stratan, Shane Casey
Writer-director Piotr Domalewski’s (Silent Night) dark comedy has won acclaim and numerous awards in his native Poland. A Polish-Irish co-production, it tackles the subject of mass economic emigration that began when Poland joined the European Union, after which thousands if not millions of people moved abroad for work – often separating them from their children, referred to as ‘Euro-orphans’.
I Never Cry follows Ola (Zofia Stafiej), a 17-year-old force of nature from Poland whose top priority in life is passing her driving test and getting a car. But after her father dies while working in Ireland, and her mother is forced to stay behind with her disabled brother, it is Ola who must travel there to bring his body home. Armed with only a backpack and a dwindling pack of cigarettes, she bounces around Dublin, chasing down information about her largely unknown father and battling the various layers of bureaucracy that stand in her way.
Eschewing clichés for naturalism in an engaging comedy of teenage rationale and angst, Domalewski depicts Ola with humour, curiosity and empathy as he explores the emptiness left behind by a missing parent.
