She works for the city council, he is an architect. Marysia (Julia Kijowska) and Tomek (Marcin Dorociński) live in a provincial city, they have a new house, financial stability and clear plans for the future. They are expecting a child, Marysia is due in a month. Things get complicated when Marysia's boss, the city's president (Adam Woronowicz), falls in love with her. He starts pestering and stalking her, he forces her to meet with him. He rapes her and Marysia, in shock and fear, doesn't tell Tomek about it. The secret becomes the beginning of the end of their relationship.
The film was inspired by a newspaper article by Lidia Ostałowska for Gazeta Wyborcza in 2008 entitled This is what happened to my wife / To się stało mojej żonie. It concerned the well know case of sexual abuse in the Olszytn city council but it was written from the point of view of the husband of one of the molestation victims.
Loving, however does not make a sensation of the affair, Sławomir Fabicki's film is an intimate drama. He takes a hard look at the protagonists and focuses of how they relate and react to each other. Before our eyes, habits that were set in stone start crumbling. What seemed certain turns out to be fragile. Trust, closeness, desire, security - nothing seems to be sure anymore. Tomek and Marysia have to ask themselves what feelings they can salvage.
Writing for culture.pl Bartosz Staszczyszyn remarks that the filmmaker portrays love as an unknown, a feeling born on the intersection of memories and the sad prose of life. Loving's protagonists try to name the feeling between them. Their point of reference is the past where their most beautiful memories take their roots. In an attempt to save their marriage, Marysia and Tomek think back to their youth, they remember the first time they saw each other, they reconstruct the old gestures.
Staszczyszyn goes on to call the film strikingly intimate, a "true and touching story, a painful vivsection of emotions unrolls before our eyes". The director's appreciation of emotions is most visible in the scenes where Tomek and Marysia are lying in bed flirting and reminiscing, the journalist says with certainty "there is no deception here, there is authentic pain, joy, unfulfilled life dreams and fears. There is also chemistry." In Julia Kijowska and Marcin Dorociński's interpretation, who play side by side for the fifth time, the couple give each other support, they are each other's sense of security.
In an interview for culture.pl, Fabicki said he believes women are stronger than men and braver in the face of adversity. These views are visible through the movie. Marysia, that character that Kijowska plays, carries the burden of the trauma and fights to save the relationship and herself. Her husband, Tomek, goes back and forth, acting like the victim and the hangman. As played by Marcin Dorocinski, Tomek only finds peace in his wife's arms. Marysia is also there for him when Tomek's mother dies from cancer and he and his father (Marian Dziędziel) cannot face the reality.
With cinematography by Piotr Szczepański whose camera remains almost immobile throughout the film, emotional honesty is not conjured, feelings become more important than the form. There is no music score that would add to the drama, the creator leaves the viewer with a raw image. Staszczyszyn notices that this strategy carries with it a certain risk - every emotion that isn't entirely truthful is visible to the viewer. In Loving we can see and hear a couple of false tones which music and camera movement would otherwise cover up. But Fabicki has determination and his methods pay off. "Thanks to the austere form, the scene of the death of the mother or the conversation of the couple in bed are both breathtaking", the reviewer goes on to add.
Fabicki's first feature, the 2006 Retrieval / Z odzysku was the Polish candidate for the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category and received special mention of Ecumenical Jury of Un Certain Regard at Cannes and picked up awards at the Thessaloniki and Warsaw film festivals. In 2001, for his short film A Man Thing Fabicki was nominated for an Oscar in the "Live Action Short Film" category.
Loving comes to Polish cinemas in March 2013.
Awards:
- April 2013, l'Ulivo d'oro at the 2013 European Film Festival in Lecce
- March 2013, Loving wins the main competition - the New Europe - New Names section of the 18th International Kino Pavasaris Film Festival in Vilnius;
- December 2012, Golden Prometheus, the main prize at the 13th Tbilisi International Film Festival;
- November 2012, Best Actress for Julia Kijowska for her role as Marysia at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece
- Loving / Miłość, Poland 2012. Direction: Sławomir Fabicki, Script: Sławomir Fabicki, Marek Pruchniewski, cinematography: Piotr Szczepański, art direction: Dorota Łacek-Gorczyca, costumes: Katarzyna Śródka, Cast: Marcin Dorociński (Tomek), Julia Kijowska (Maria), Adam Woronowicz (prezydent miasta), Agata Kulesza (żona prezydenta), Dorota Kolak (matka Tomka), Marian Dziędziel (ojciec Tomka), Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Roman Gancarczyk, Piotr Trojan, Magdalena Czerwińska, Monika Pikuła, Joanna Sydor. Produkcja: Odeon Rybarczyk Producions Sp. z o.o., Koprodukcja: Anagram Film.
Sources: based on the article by Bartosz Staszczyszyn for culture.pl, PISF
Editor: Marta Jazowska