Still from Marcin Latałło's "Our Street", photo: Fundacja Magellan.
The Furmanczyks have lived and worked in the city of Łódź for five generations. Their story is connected with the factory on Ogrodowa Street that dates to the end of the 19th century, founded then by one of Łódź’s so-called kings of cotton, the Jewish factory owner Izrael Poznański, as the city developed into "the Polish Manchester". A symbol of Łódź's industrial might, Poznański's factory was prominent in Andrzej Wajda’s The Promised Land, adapted from the novel by Nobel laureate Władysław Reymont.
After communism fell, Furmanczyk family members lost their long-term jobs and the family's security. The Poznański factory was converted into the Manufactura shopping complex in 2006. The Furmańczyk apartment is located in the building opposite the mall. "They could observe", the documentary’s creators comment, "how French investors built the biggest enterainment and shopping complex in Central Europe from the ruins of a factory that once provide them with work".
One of Our Street’s protagonists is Marek, an adult who has been jobless for 12 years after being let go from the factory. For potential employers, Marek is too old, as director Latałło assesses. "I am too young to die and too old to live", Marek says. Every day, he observes the brick walls of the old factory and monitors the new elevation of the shopping centre.
Our Street's central characters include a grandmother who reminisces about the factory’s workers fate, and her granddaughter, pregnant and dreaming that her son won’t spend life worrying about money. Latałło says, "I talk about the life of simple people who carry history on their shoulders. Their biographies are a short story in the history of the entire city." In an article for culture.pl, Bartosz Staszczyszyn writes that Łódź is among the central protagonists of Our Street.
Latałło shot Our Street (Notre Rue, in French) between 2003 and 2008. He termed the Furmańczyk home and the historic Poznański factory buildings "the world in a nutshell", in an interview for the Polish Press Agency, "The documentary talks about people who lost something that once made up their whole life. On one side of the street there are houses for the workers [...] Dillapidated buildings housing people who have been foresaken. On the other side of the street is a gigantic private investement – a shopping mall that symbolises a new Europe."
Marcin Latałło (born 1967) is a director, producer and cinematographer who studied directing at La Femis in Paris. He has cooperated with Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieślowski, and his works include short films and documentaries including Ślad / Trace (1996) and Konstelacje / Constellations.(2006). Within the Wajda School’s 30-minute cycle, he made the short feature 3 uściski dłoni / Three Hand Shakes in 2012; the same year, in cooperation with TVP Polish Television, he shot a documentary about theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowski , Nowy Sen / New Dream. He is currently working on his first full-length fiction film, entitled Marynarz w Łodzi / A Sailor in Łódź.
Sources: based on the English language article by Bartosz Staszczyszyn, Two Riversides Film Festival, DOK Web
Editor: Marta Jazowska