Film still, photo: Kid Film
Three homeless boys Pietia, Wasia and Liapa who live in the bowels of a railway station in a Russian city set off one day in search of a better life. They reach Poland after an exhausting journey only to be deported back to Russia. Despite their heartbreaking fate the children show strength of will and endurance. The film is a Polish-Japanese co-production based on a real-life story. Director Dorota Kędzierzawska who was inspired to make a film "for everyone who is like me. So they can stop being scared" explains,
Apparently this story really took place. I only learned about it all by chance from a friend [...]. I do not know whether the boys were two or three. I do not know whether they were brothers. I do not know whether they fled for the first time or for a consecutive time. I do not know what happened to them along the way. I only know that they wanted to change something in their lives... I know that many of us hope that somewhere there is a better, or more beautiful reality.
Apart from one role, all the characters in the film are played by amateurs and first-time actors. Speaking about the assembly of the cast, the director emphasised that the children, who play a major role in the film had to speak Russian perfectly. "We managed to find the eldest boy, Akhmed, among the many children living in Polish refugee camps. He is a Chechen, with a bit of a stutter – just as Liapa, the boy he played. The two young boys are brothers both on and off screen. We found them, in Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine after a long search", she reminisces.
Gazeta Wyborcza reviewer Paweł T. Felis applauds the director's approach to the world-view of children, remarking that Kędzierzawska "proves that she is a genius at observing children - building the film on brilliant, evanescent details that make up the child's microcosmos". The film has also encountered negative reviews. Variety's Leslie Felperin criticised the film's "meandering script", which doesn't quite "live up" to the director's earlier standard,
Although there are definitely good bits and standout scenes (particularly a wedding sequence and the pic's denouement), "Tomorrow" rambles somewhat aimlessly, like its protagonists, tightening up only in the last reels. More naturalistic than Kedzierzawska's stylized last project, the monochrome old-crone-focused "Time to Die," and lacking a score as swooning and rich as the one Michael Nyman composed for "I Am," "Tomorrow Will Be Better" feels a bit humdrum, even a bit pat, especially given its resigned, too-easy indomitable-spirit-of-innocence conclusion.
Since its Polish premiered in November, 2011 Tommorow Will be Better is running the international festival circuit.
"Tomorrow will be Better". Written & directed by Dorota Kędzierzawska, director of photography Arthur Reinhart, PSC music by Vacat, production design by Arthur Reinhart, costume design by Katarzyna Morawska, editing by Dorota Kędzierzawska and Arthur Reinhart, sound by Vacat. Cast Oleg Ryba (Pietia), Jewgienij Ryba (Waśka), Akhmed Sardalov (Liapa), Stanisław Sojka (policeman), Aleksandra Bilewicz (bride), Zygmunt Gorodowienko (old man), Kinga Walenkiewicz (Lala), Antoni Łanczkowski (border guard), Stanisław Zawadzki (driver), Angelika Kozic (girl with bread), Izabela Wilczewska (mistress), Michał Malec (lover). Produced by Kid Film Arthur Reinhart, co-produced by Pioniwa Film; The Chimney Pot; Non Stop Film Service; Film Ilumination and Takashi Niwa distribution & world sales Co-financing from the Polish Film Institute.
Editor: Marta Jazowska