Urszula Grabowska, Sara Knothe, photo stopklatka.pl
The starting point is a true story. During one autumn under Nazi occupation, a Jewish girl was celebrating her seventh birthday with her mother in a café. After eating her pastry, she leaves the coffee shop, but her mother does not. First, a man - a blackmailer bribed by the authorities - stops her, and a moment later German gendarmes entered the café. The girl spends the raid in a nearby church. It was there that the following morning, where the waitress from the coffee shop finds her and takes her home.
This completes the historical inspiration. Feliks Falk, author of Joanna (and before that a dozen other films such as Wodzirej/ Top Dog and Komornik/ The Collector, a recent Polish candidate for an Academy Award), is interested not as much in the fate of the Jewish girl in occupied Kraków, but in the relationship which formed between her and her guardian. In this sense, the director notes that, "This is not another film about the Holocaust. It is primarily a story about the injustice of fate, which every one of us could meet".
Indeed, most films about Jews in hiding during World War II focus on homelessness and the daily fear of fugitives, the transfer of Jews from home to home in search of a safe haven. In Falk's film, it is different: the small girl named Róża ends up at Joanna's house by accident, but nothing indicates that it is to be a temporary solution.
What is behind Joanna's decision? Perhaps she does it out of pity, or out of humanity, or maybe the emerging feeling of motherhood. She is, after all, a young woman who married shortly before the war, her husband went to the frontline, and later disappeared. She was left alone in a big house, to which she never found a tenant, which raises suspicion. Furthermore, she was not only by herself, but left to herself - her parents were busy with their own affairs, and devoted more attention to her sister, herself going through a rough patch in her marraige. Róża can thus be a ray of light in Joanna's sad and empty life.
But the appearance of the girl begins to cause more serious implications, including the invasion of a German patrol. In truth, while searching the apartment, they do not find the hiding child, yet their commanding officer does not hide his fascination with the attractive woman. He borrows a book, which is an obvious announcement of another visit. Then it will be impossible to hide Róża: in exchange for the girl's life, Joanna offers her own. But this is not the only price of survival. For contacts with a German, a woman, considered a collaborator, is stigmatized by the resistance, her family turns their back on her, and she losses hope - the officer checks the fate of her husband, who, it turns out, died shortly after settling in a German POW camp. Róża has to leave - for her own safety.
The atmosphere of entrapment is portrayed through the cinematography by Piotr Śliskowski - cold, claustrophobic, grey - almost black and white. However, what goes on between Róża and Joanna exudes warmth, Feliks Falk draws on delicately emerging feelings, growing mutual ties - as if in defiance of the coming tragedy. This was accomplished thanks to the talent of Urszula Grabowska, who gives one of her most mature screen creations. At the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the jury distinguished Feliks Falk with writing and directing awards, as well as Magdalena Biedrzycka for costumes and Iwona Blicharz for makeup.
For the film, the director received a Golden Lion at the festival in Gdynia. He also received an award in the category for best director and best screenwriter.
- Joanna, Poland, 2010. Written and directed by Feliks Falk, cinematography: Piotr Śliskowski, music: Bartłomiej Gliniak, set design by Anna Wunderlich, costumes by Małgorzata Biedrzycka, editing: Krzysztof Szpetmański, sound by Maria Chilarecka. Starring: Urszula Grabowska (Joanna Kurska), Sara Knothe (Rose), Stanisława Celińska (Kamińska, housekeeper), Kinga Preis (Staszka Kopec), Halina Łabonarska (Joanna's mother), Izabela Kuna (Ewa, Joanna's sister), Joachim Paul Assböck (major), Mieczysław Grabka (Head Post Chief). Production: Studio Akson - National Cultural Centre. Co-financing: Polish Film Institute. Length: 106 min. Distribution: ITI Cinema. In cinemas from November 26, 2010.
Author: Konrad J. Zarębski, October 2010.
Translated by Roberto Galea, December 2010.