Still from Maciej Michalski's "The Canadian Dresses", photo: Tongariro Releasing
In the Polish countryside, Zofia is celebrating her birthday. Everyone is expecting the arrival of Zofia's daughter Amelia and her husband, Tadeusz, who have been living in Canada for 10 years. Amelia turns up by herself. The Canadian Dresses takes the viewer into the past, and we learn the real reasons behind Amelia's departure for Canada and the reality of her life in North America. And her story leads to the disentanglement of other complicated family stories.
"I decided to talk about my childhood, about Poland from the 1980s. My family still lives in Canada", Maciej Michalski said in an interview for Głos Wielkopolski. "Back then, presents from there were as if from a different world. We had this vision of Canada as a beautiful country in which you can earn money and didn't appreciate what we had in here in Poland [...] Poland from the 80s is more than the dullness of communism and long food queues, it also stands for things like the countryside, a home filled with warmth, singing and dancing. Today in Poland we have 'that old' Canada, and that's what the film deals with as well."
The film was shot on a symbolic budget brought together with the director's own money and from his brother, the film's producer. Despite minimal means, the project attracted well-known Polish actors - Anna Seniuk in the role of Zofia, Wiktor Zborowski and the singer Justyna Steczkowska - who agreed to be paid from the film's future profits.
Despite his age, The Canadian Dresses is not Maciej Michalski first work. The director was shooting films during his studies at the Poznan Academy of Fine Arts. He debuted with Święto ziół i koniczyny / The Herb and Clover Holiday [editor's translation] in 2001. He directed his first feature, Królowa śniegu / The Snow Queen [editor's translation], in 2009. He gained recognition as a music-video director, with a portfolio of over 70 clips.
In addition to praising the big-screen comeback of actress Anna Seniuk in a piece for Portalfilmowy.pl, Tomasz Raczek said that The Canadian Dresses is "a story that combines a social panorama of country life [...] with the rather teary nostalgia of the heart-grabbing song Mein jidische Mame." Writing for Stopklatka.pl, Urszula Lipińska was more pessimistic, saying that "Maciej Michalski had an idea. What he lacked was determination to reduce the effect that the making of the film was tiresome and modest in every aspect."
The Canadian Dresses comes to cinemas in Poland on the 1st of February 2013.
- Kanadyjskie sukienki / The Canadian Dresses - script and directing: Maciej Michalski, cinematography: Zuzanna Pyda, Piotr Matysiak, sound: Marek Siwicki, makeup and costumes: Izabela Liżewska. Cast: Anna Seniuk, Zofia Czerwińska, Ewa Kasprzyk, Piotr Polk, Elżbieta Jarosik, Ewa Kolasińska, Magdalena Malina, Karolina Dryzner, Sebastian Cybulski, Bartosz Martyna, Arek Smoleński, Jarosław Sacharski, Hanna Bieniuszewicz, Mateusz Ławrynowicz, Sabina Michalska, Maria Winiarska, Wiktor Zborowski, Agata Sasinowska, Zofia Zborowska, Daniel Salman, Ewa Gil, Szymon Nowak, Sławomir Federowicz and others.
Sources: based on the article by Bartosz Staszczyszyn for culture.pl
Editor: Marta Jazowska