Urszula is a middle aged working woman who doesn't seem 'traditional' to the bear eye. She is a respected journalist, lives in a modern home, went through a divorce, got remarried and has poor housekeeping skills. Asked by her only daughter, she agrees to host her ex-husband and his new wife in her home for Easter breakfast. On the special occasion Urszula and her ex-husband will meet their daughter's fiancé. What is supposed to be a conciliatory meal between modern and cultured people, turns into a gut-wrenching confrontation of values. Urszula is at the centre of the Carnage-like show. There is bullying, verbal abuse and the traditional Polish Easter cake called Mazurek / Easter Crumble Urszula prepared is symbolically bashed in by the choleric woman.
Urszula's pent up feelings resurface when her twenty-something year old daughter's fiancé turns out to be a thirty years older man who used to be her English professor at Oxford. James went through two divorces and has a 29 year old daughter himself. Despite attempts at manipulating the fiancé into leaving the young girl, Urszula realises that she has no say in her child's life. Julia Kolberger's short film taps into feelings of anger provoked by change, resentment and unhealed wounds. Urszula's daughter, her "one and only bundle of joy" brings out all the feelings that the woman had tried to sweep under the rug for years.
Apart from laying out the personal challenges brought on by ever-evolving family structures, The Easter Crumble gives an image of an average Polish response towards these shifting paradigms. While in Western Europe and the Americas the nuclear family (a single set of biological parents residing together with their children) dates back to the Middle Ages, in Eastern Europe multiple generations of the same family lived together in the same household, marriage before the age of 30 and kids are highly valued life paths. According to research (Stephanie Coontz 2005) on the history of marriage, the evolution of the family in the United States began with an important shift in the culture of marriage in the mid-18th Century. Poland, on the other hand, is a country whose culture is currently undergoing paradigm shifts in the same direction. While the family unit is rapidly evolving under the pressure of the changes in the economy, values, and politics, personal change, as exemplified by Urszula, comes second.
Julia Kolberger (born 1978) finished English studies, film studies and applied linguistics in Tours and Paris. She graduated in directing from the Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. Her documentary work includes Mi mama nie przeszkadza (2005), By Touching (2007), Powiedz mi cos jeszcze (2006) on the other hand is a fiction film. The Easter Crumble took part in two cinematic competitions so far: the 13th T-Mobile New Horizons Film Festival in Poland and the 26th Helsinki International Film Festival. Julia Kolberger is currently working on the screenplay to her feature debut.
The short film was produced by the Munk Studio, a production house that specialises in short and full-length debut films. Operating within the Polish Filmmakers Association, the studio aims to promote young talented artists and leads the novices through the entire production process.
- Mazurek / The Easter Crumble, Poland 2013. Directed by Julia Kolberger, script by Julia Kolberger, Director of Photography Jakub Giza. Cast: Kinga Preis, Roman Gancarczyk, Aleksandra Domanska, Pawel Krolikowski, Marta Juras, Richard Berkeley. Production: Studio Munk, Executive producer: Watchout Productions
Author: Marta Jazowska 19.09
Thumbnail credit: Still from Julia Kolberger's "Easter Crumble", photo: Michał Panasiuk/Studio Munka
Sources: easteuropeanfood.com, polishshorts.pl, munkstudio.eu