Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at this year’s Berlinale, Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski’s (Floating Skyscrapers) searing drama follows four women of different generations struggling with love and loneliness in Poland during the aftermath of Communism.
It’s the start of the 1990s and Polish society is trying to redefine itself after years of stagnation. In a small provincial town, there is euphoria in the air but also fear about what lies ahead.
We meet Agata, who’s attracted to a priest and secretly observes him; head teacher Iza, in the throes of a longstanding affair; Russian language teacher Renata and Marzena, who dreams of an international career as a model.
Shot in desaturated colours, Wasilewski’s visceral film investigates a society caught between the death throes of an old world and the as yet unrealised appeal of a new one – and the subsequent emotional impoverishment of its citizens, all desperately yearning for change, and to fulfil their hopes, loves and desires.
