The prose of Iwaszkiewicz, a writer rather forgotten by the young generation, was quite a phenomenon among Polish filmmakers for many years. There was a saying that if you didn't have an idea for a script, you should take a short story by Iwaszkiewicz and success was assured. Examples include Andrzej Wajda's Brzezina / The Birch Wood (1970) and Panny z Wilka / The Maids from Wilko (1979).
Izabella Cywińska has also taken on Iwaszkiewicz's prose. She has made a film whose mood invokes those earlier productions, and those times, taking as her picture's focus the theme of homosexual love - a topic present in the writer's output, but until now completely ignored by directors making adaptations of Iwaszkiewicz's works.
The story unfolds in a small village. Village schoolteacher Ola, single, is frustrated and unhappy despite her young age. Her life is slipping through her fingers - no raptures, no new plans, and increasingly forgotten dreams of great love, the kind that's described in books. She meets Janek - a patient at a nearby tuberculosis sanatorium. The feeling that engulfs them is wild and condemned to end in tragedy - Janek is terminally ill. Consequently, the lovers don't care what happens, nor what the world will think. Janek has a friend, though - Arek. A tense love triangle develops, where a woman and a man fight for the love of their beloved.
"This film is a kind of laboratory of love. The result is a story of universal love on which no sexual orientation has a monopoly, because it is a feeling addressed not so much to a woman or a man, but to a person. Love is their only salvation - also in their struggle with death. They have the opportunity to touch eternal, absolute love, which builds their world, gives meaning to their lives, is capable of anything. In other words - a laboratory of love and death", says Izabella Cywińska.
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Pictures provided by the press service of the film's distributor, SPI International Polska |
Love in this film is infinite, to the end, in life and death. Ola's attitude seems disconnected from life's reality, having no future, self-destructive. Still, it is a great emotion that changes the rural schoolteacher's life.The script for Kochankowie z Marony / The Lovers of Marona was based not only on Iwaszkiewicz's short story, but also his Dzienniki / Diaries where he described his fascination with Jerzy Błeszyński, who died of tuberculosis. He was the model for the character of Janek.
"The weather was good - the magnificent sequences Marcin Koszałka shot at dusk. The acting was good: the best role by Karolina Gruszka, and two discoveries - Krzysztof Zawadzki and Łukasz Simlat". (Tadeusz Sobolewski, Gazeta Wyborcza)
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Pictures provided by the press service of the film's distributor, SPI International Polska |
Izabella Cywińska's Kochankowie z Marony / The Lovers of Marona is the second adaptation of Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz's short story. The first film, made in 1966, was directed by Jerzy Zarzycki, and Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz himself was one of the scriptwriters. Despite the writer's taking part in making the first screen version, critics say that Izabella Cywińska's film is more faithful to the spirit of Iwaszkiewicz's story.
- Kochankowie z Marony / The Lovers of Marona, Poland, 2005. Directed by Izabella Cywińska, screenplay by Cezary Harasimowicz, Izabella Cywińska, director of photography: Marcin Koszałka, music by Jerzy Satanowski, production design by Jacek Osadowski, costume design by Magdalena Biedrzycka, film editor: Anna Wagner, sound: Nikodem Wołk-Łaniewski, production manager: Teresa Paszkiewicz. Featuring: Karolina Gruszka (Ola), Łukasz Simlat (Arek), Krzysztof Zawadzki (Janek), Danuta Stenka (Hornowa), Janusz Michałowski (Horn), Ewa Kasprzyk (Eufrozyna), Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak (Gulbińska), Łukasz Sikora (Józio), Andrzej Róg (gruźlik), Aleksander Wysocki (Gulbiński), Tomasz Sapryk (fisherman), Małgorzata Zawadzka (Barbara, Janek's wife). Produced by Agencja Media Plus, Techfilm, Agencja Produkcji Filmowej. Duration: 107 min. Cinema premiere: June 23, 2006.
Film awards:
- 2005 - award for best actress for Karolina Gruszka at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia.
Author: Joanna Pawluśkiewicz, December 2006