The graduation film by Klara Kochańska tells the story of Justyna (Julia Kijowska), a thirty-year-old layer from the big city, who buys an apartment at a debt auction. When the lonely lawyer moves to her dream apartment, she finds the previous tenant (Beata Fudalej), who has remained in the apartment to raise her intellectually disabled teenage daughter. Justyna finds herself in a situation where she must ask how much she is willing to pay for the dream of her own home and living stability.
Kochańska tells her story, combining psychological drama and social cinema. With its intimate story of the young woman on the cusp of life, Tenants intertwines situational comedy and social drama in a tale of two types of life exclusion. On the one hand, Kochańska addresses the anxieties of a precarious generation, on the other; she shows people that the state has pushed to the margins. The young director navigates the borders of several film conventions, surprising and leading astray viewers at every turn. Even when secondary characters are introduced (including a man played by Sławomir Orzechowski), they turn out to be completely different than one might suppose.
In 2016, Klara Kochańska’s short film was presented at the 51st International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, as well as festivals in Kraków and Durban. During the 31st Warsaw Film Festival, Tenants received the Grand Prix for short film, and at the 13th Global Chinese Universities Student Film and TV Festival it received the award for best international film. In 2016, Kochańska’s film won a Student Oscar, a competition to which were entered by more than 1700 student films from around the world.
Klara Kochańska (b. 1984) is a graduate of the College of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities at the University of Warsaw, and has been a directing student at the Film School in Łódź since 2009. She has worked as a co-creator of photo shoots and music videos (The Cliff and Enchanted by Klara Jędrzejewska). She is also the creator of the short films Snow Queen (Królowa Śniegu), Resurrection (Zmartwychwstanie), and 10 Apgar, and wrote the film Flora and Fauna (directed by Piotr Litwin).
- Tenants (Lokatorki) Director: Klara Kochańska Screenplay: Klara Kochańska, Kasper Bajon Director of Photography: Zuzanna Pyda Editor: Barbara Fronc Cast: Julia Kijowska, Beata Fudalej, Diana Zamojska, Joanna Drozda, Sławomir Orzechowski, Paweł Królikowski, Miron Jagniewski, Daniel Guzdek Production: The Polish National Film Television and Theatre School
Ed: BS; trans: AGA 08.2016