Still from Katarzyna Rosłaniec's "Baby Blues", photo: Łukasz Niewiadomski / Kino Świat
At first glance they seem to be worlds apart: one is a committed young priest, the other a 17-year-old girl with a baby, yet they both face the same struggle – loneliness. Two Polish films take part in London’s trendy East End Film Festival
In the Name of…
Małgorzata Szumowska’s latest picture, In the Name of…, focuses on a lonely priest who launches a help centre for troubled youth in a small parish. Well-liked by the community, he keeps the details of his complicated past a secret, and plunges into turmoil with the appearance of Łukasz. A story about hope, doubt and the longing for feelings, Screen International has called In the Name of… "...an intelligent, non-judgmental drama about a committed youngish priest grappling with the urges of the flesh", while one jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, where the film won Best Feature Film in the Teddy Award category, states,
Malgoska Szumowska’s visually powerful film, charged with striking imagery from Christ’s Passion, dares to broach the still-taboo topic of homosexuality in priesthood. Confronted with his ‘forbidden’ desires, her protagonist experiences both moments of bliss and utter despair. A film about confused emotions, repression and loneliness – and the possibility of perhaps finding oneself after all.
The film also received the International Feature Film Award at the Dortmund Festival of Women’s Films in April 2013.
Baby Blues
Equating pregnancy with ordering a meal at a fast-food restaurant, Katarzyna Rosłaniec’s Baby Blues takes a hard look at 21st-century aberrations, and portrays challenges faced by teenagers in a world driven by imitation and illusion. Her latest film’s protagonist is 17-year-old Natalia, who wanted to have a baby to "have someone to love". Her role models Britney Spears and Nicole Richie have kids. Natalia roller-skates the sidewalks of Warsaw, pushing a pram, wearing a perfectly matched outfit. Together with the baby's father, Kuba, they try to raise Antoś. She can't count on her mother, who quickly disappears from her life, leaving Natalia, Kuba and Antoś alone in her apartment. She was 15 when she had Natalia, and no older than 30 when Antoś is born.
The film is praised for the "pleasingly raw" acting of amateurs Magdalena Berus and Nikodem Rozbicki, and for "attention to costumes, which are more carefully designed than a Lady Gaga appearance", as Boyd van Hoeij writes for Variety. "Far more than just another in the long line of films about teen pregnancy", Robert Bell says in his review for Exclaim, the director "establishes a disturbingly realist vision of modern society, where teenage girls think nothing of offering up their bodies for the opportunity to work in low-end retail establishments or casually snort cocaine while holding an infant. [...] an unflattering quotidian where morality and self-respect are secondary to fleeting modes of validation."
Baby Blues won the Crystal Bear Award at the 63rd Berlin IFF.
The East End Film Festival is the U.K.’s largest film festival, with over 80 features and 100 shorts in 2013. The two-week programme includes film events such as pop-up screenings, premieres and discussions. For more information see: East End Film Festival
editor: MJ 26.06.2013
sources: culture.pl, Polish Cultural Institute in London