Koterski uses his favourite actors and their artistic history to create symbolic meanings. In his film actors bring over the characters they played as before and the values with which they are associated. It is no coincidence that Robert Węckiewicz and Adam Woronowicz play, respectively, Miauczyński’s brother and father – they both starred in Man, Chicks Are Just Different. In other roles, we see Andrzej Mastalerz as the class clown and Tomasz Karolak as Gruby (‘Fatty’).
However, it is Gabriela Muskała, the class nerd, who steals the film. Muskała has so much passion, humour, and energy that she makes the scenes in which she appears her own. Her character is a tragicomic country girl who tries to fulfil the dreams of her parents and pays a great price for it. At the 43rd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, where the film premiered, there was no better supporting role.
Koterski’s amusing and brilliant film has its shortcomings. The final sequence is the biggest of them – grotesque comedy transforms into a lecture about parenting, the necessity of respect towards children, and the fact the parents have no right to burden their offspring with their own baggage. Koterski explains all this through one of the characters as if he did not believe that the viewers could understand the message on their own.
This does not change the fact that 7 Emotions is a great achievement for Koterski which proves that there is no better psychotherapist in Polish cinema. On the screen, the director exposes not only himself but also all of us.