Click here to see the Polish trailer (no subs)
Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 11 Oct only
Feliks Falk / Poland / 2010 / 105 min
The temptation for Polish filmmakers to revisit their occupied land during the Second World War is understandable given its lasting damage, but with it comes repetition and mediocrity. It’s a genre which lives in the shadow of its former self; films from the 50s and 60s made such immediate contact with the events of the occupation, modern attempts can often struggle to match it. Feliks Falk’s latest contribution is truly heartfelt, but can’t quite compete with its rivals.
The angle is slightly refreshed, as Joanna (Urszula Grabowska) sequesters a Jewish child, Róza (Sara Knothe), after she is separated from her mother. This gives way to pointed and revealing metaphors about female generations in Polish society, arguing how women of all ages suffered at the hands of German cruelty. The tension is far from that of Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness and the action is muted in comparison to the heist adventure of Waldemar Krzystek’s 80 Million. Falk’s film is fainter and more melodramatic, even richly impressionistic at times, and deals with the everyday heartache of occupied Poland: avoiding Gestapo seizures, holding down a job and staying loyal in the eyes of your suspicious neighbours. Joanna is a small-scale heartbreaker, tame in comparison to the grandeur and feeling of Polanski’s celebrated The Pianist, but nuanced with poignant details of wartime strife.
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