Kasia Adamik, daughter of film directors Agnieszka Holland and Laco Adamik, is not a film school graduate, but spent many years training on set with her mother and other well-known filmmakers, working as a set production assistant and storyboard artist. She debuted as a filmmaker in her own right in 2002 with Bark! / Szczek which was screened at the Sundance festival and was an award-winner at the festivals in Bordeaux and Warsaw. The trade magazine "Variety" not only noticed the film but also listed Kasia Adamik among the season's most promising young film directors. She had to wait some time to prove her talent, however. The production of a Polish-Slovakian film about Janosik, which she was supposed to direct with her mother a few years ago, was put on hold (it's due to be completed in 2009). Adamik took part in work on the attention-grabbing political fiction series Ekipa / Prime Minister (2007, with her mother and her aunt Magdalena Łazarkiewicz), and also directed several episodes of the crime series Pitbull. Boisko bezdomnych / The Offsiders (2008) marks her return to cinema.
The Polish title suggests the film is about homelessness - in its most literal sense. The main characters in Adamik's film - people from various walks of life: an ex-priest, an ex-seaman, an ex-miner, an ex-minister, an ex-coach, and even an ex-astronaut - meet in the underground passageways of Warsaw's main railway station. They are human wrecks, vegetating in dark corners around the station, eating at shelters and soup kitchens. They are running away from reality, or maybe reality has turned its back on them. A press cutting about the Homeless World Cup in football provides an unexpected inspiration. The coach, an unfulfilled football player whose career was cut short by an injury, organizes them all into a football team. Joint practices bind the team together, and they start believing they stand a chance in life. Partly through coincidence, partly thanks to other people's kindness, the men achieve champion skills: they will officially represent Poland at the Homeless World Cup...
Homelessness and football - it sounds like a very good film story, but originates from real life. These championships have been held for some time, and a Polish team started taking part not long ago. Its success even inspired Mirosław Dembiński to make the docudrama Przegrani i zwycięzcy / Losers and Winners (2004) which won the Man in Danger Media Festival in Łódź. This isn't a fictional repeat of that film, however, but an insightful look at homelessness and homeless people.
"The cause of homelessness is usually alcohol, a woman, prison time, or depression", says Kasia Adamik in an interview for "Kino" monthly (5/2008). "If you don't have a family or friends - then it's also loneliness. I wanted my heroes to be believable, but also interesting as film characters. I didn't want to create a lyrical, fairy-tale, or poetic image of homelessness. I tell the story of several men whose lives have included a number of sometimes tragicomic twists. This could happen to anyone who simply doesn't have the money to pay off their next loan instalment."
Initially the film was conceived as a Polish version of the British film The Full Monty, but the concept chosen in the end was that of a realistic story, though not without humorous moments, underscored so well by Jacek Petrycki's cinematography. Though the film's extras included homeless people from the Warszawa Centralna station, the leading roles were played by professional actors, including popular stars: Marcin Dorociński, Jacek Poniedziałek, Krzysztof Kiersznowski, Bartłomiej Topa, and Maria Seweryn. Non-professional actors worth noting are Eryk Lubos (an award-winner at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia), and Maciej Nowak (a theatre critic in real life). At the Gdynia festival, Kasia Adamik's film also won the best costume design award and the audience award.
- Boisko bezdomnych / The Offsiders, Poland 2008. Director: Kasia Adamik, screenplay based on an idea of Kasia Adamik and Agnieszka Holland: Przemysław Nowakowski, cinematography: Jacek Petrycki, music: Antoni Łazarkiewicz, set design: Katarzyna Sobańska, costumes: Katarzyna Lewińska, Magdalena Rutkiewicz, editing: Michał Czarnecki, sound: Jacek Hamela, Leszek Freund. Cast: Marcin Dorociński (Jacek Mróz), Rafał Fudalej (Alek), Piotr Jagielski (Staszek's son), Marek Kalita (Minister), Krzysztof Kiersznowski (Staszek), Eryk Lubos ("Indor" [Turkey-cock]), Maciej Nowak ("Wariat" [Fool]), Dmitri Persin (Mitro), Jacek Poniedziałek ("Ksiądz" [Priest]), Bartłomiej Topa ("Górnik" [Miner]), Maria Seweryn (Jacek's ex-wife), Zbigniew Zamachowski (journalist). Producers: Studio Filmowe "Tor", TVP S.A., Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych, Non Stop Film Service. Co-financed by: Polish Film Institute, distribution: Gutek Film. Length 126 min. Released on 10 October 2008.
Author: Konrad J. Zarębski, October 2008.
Awards:
- 2008 - Best supporting actor award for Eryk Lubos, best costume design award for Katarzyna Lewińska and Magdalena J. Rutkiewicz, Silver Screen Audience Award for Kasia Adamik at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia;
Golden Teeth audience award for Kasia Adamik at the Polish Film Festival in Chicago;
Main Prize in the Polish Film Competition for Jacek Petrycki at the Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography in Łódź.
