Laura is twelve years old. Her parents are deaf. Her father works as a locksmith in a nearby factory, while her mother is a housewife. The residents of their village have become accustomed to this situation and learnt how to interact with them. Whenever Laura’s parents need to go out, she becomes their guide and guardian. As Bartosz Wróblewski wrote in Gazeta Wyborcza:
The girl acts as their ears and mouth, thus they spend a lot of time together and generally have better contact than most of Laura’s peers do with their parents. Her responsibility for her parents and the support she gives them have forced the girl to grow up much sooner, and she understands what adulthood is even before entering adolescence. She thinks seriously about the future, but also finds room for youthful carelessness in her life. But most of all, she has developed a unique sensibility, which this film educates us all about. A sensibility which emerges on the intersection of two worlds – the one we are very familiar with and that of the deaf-mute. The latter is marked by a different perception, means of expression, and a feeling of lack, the awareness of one’s limitations. In this family, it is wonderfully overcome, thanks to solidarity, dedication, and mutual support.
For years, Maciej Adamek’s documentary output has focused on otherness – one which can stigmatise, but also opens a perspective that is inaccessible to most people. In Till Death Do Us Part from 1999, Adamek told the story of two handicapped men who met at a nursing home and years later moved in together to support each other on an everyday basis. His I Am With You from 2004 was about parents who accompany their children during months-long hospital therapies, in On the Road (2005), he painted a portrait of a homeless married couple searching for their place on Earth, while in the film Life to Live from 2003, he took his audience to a blind institution in Laski, Poland, in order to present the incredible world of its young patients.
In his latest film, he shows people who perceive the world form their own, exceptional perspective. The story of twelve-year-old Laura is a tale about learning to look in a different way and about the need to be understood. Adamek turns this subtle family drama into a meeting of generations, sensibilities, and even cultures. For the parents of the protagonist, an outing to a store, work, or a bank becomes an encounter with a different world which is terrifyingly indifferent to their problems.
When painting the cinematic portrait of Laura, Maciej Adamek doesn’t want to turn it into a documentary adornment. He is interested in the truth about the young girl, her feelings and problems. What price does Laura pay for taking care of her parents? To what extent does the help that she provides them come from her love for them, and how much is it a necessity? Will she manage to become independent in the future? How will her parents manage then? In Adamek’s film, these kind of questions are expressed discreetly, so as not to overshadow the beautiful story about the brave girl and the mysterious world of deaf people.
Maciej Adamek’s film was presented, among others, at the 56th Kraków Film Festival, and at the 2016 Rhode Island International Film Festival in Providence, where it received the Best Documentary award.
Two Worlds, Director and screenplay: Maciej Adamek. Cinematography: Mateusz Skalski. Editing: Sławomir Goździk. Producer: Metro Films, Polish Television.
Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, own materials. ed. BS, transl. AM, September 2016.