Telling the drama of a transgender protagonist, the makers of ‘Woman of...’ combine socially engaged cinema with a respectful story about the trans community. The result is a moving, but uneven, shallow and simplistic film. The film premiered at the 80th anniversary Venice Film Festival.
He has always felt that he was a woman. This is why he stole a girl’s veil during his first communion, and went to his military commission with his toes painted. However, in provincial Kłodzko (which in Woman of… appears as a fantastic film setting), there was no room for his otherness. So Andrzej started a family, sired a son... His feminine nature did not want to be silenced though, so years later he decides to show the world his true self – Aniela.
In Woman of… Szumowska and Englert recount 45 years from the protagonist’s life, spinning a tale of identity and intolerance, human sexuality and Poland with its cult of the pope, nationalism and cultural changes of the 1990s (cartoony images with punks on the streets of Kłodzko).
In a story about the search for and definition of one’s own personality, Szumowska and Englert show the different faces of femininity: ‘castrating’ mothers, wives guarding the home hearth and women trapped in men’s bodies. The filmmakers multiply symbolic-archetypal images on screen: femininity takes the form of an ice-skater performing impressive pirouettes and tennis player Maria Sharapova bouncing a ball to the accompaniment of characteristic moans; femininity includes girls in white dresses attending their first Holy Communion, a lover trying to satisfy her husband’s needs, a prostitute from a nightclub and nuns devoted to the love of God.
With all these nuances, Woman of… turns out to be a paradoxical picture. While it is usually the on-screen journalism that kills the film, in Szumowska’s and Englert’s case it is the cinematic social commentary that turns out to be more interesting and better than the (insufficiently deep) psychological layer. Their image works stronger when the filmmakers explicitly express their stance on the subject of transsexuality – for example, in the scene of a court battle in which they show the cruelty of the legal system directed at transgender people, or in the final sequence when the film’s protagonist meets young people from the LGBTQI community. Szumowska and Englert then stand by the excluded, show their support, and their film is a voice in defence, a cry to sensitise the viewer. There may be no cinematic nobility or formal sophistication here, but there is a sincerity from the filmmakers – towards the audience and the characters.
The strength of Szumowska’s and Englert’s journalistic and fictional commentaries simultaneously highlights the greatest weakness of their image, which is psychological superficiality. For although the makers of Woman of… almost never move the camera away from the protagonist, it is, at the same time, hard to resist the impression that they do not sufficiently deepen her psychological portrait. Of course, the masterful performances of Mateusz Więcławek and Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, two actors of great sensitivity and on-screen charisma, effectively conceal this for a long time, but the character created by Szumowska and Englert remains a symbol rather than a living person. We do not see her transformation, the dilemmas that would make her turn back from the path she once took, and the obstacles that would force her to verify the validity of the goal she is pursuing.
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Still from the film 'Woman of...', photo Łukasz Bąk/Next Film
In Szumowska and Englert’s film, a story happens to the heroine, but it does not result from her. Once set in motion, the avalanche of events proceeds in a somewhat mechanical way – as in the film’s abbreviated opening sequence, in which the filmmakers tick off the stages of the heroine’s life (falling in love, marriage, family...). The dramatic structure of the film suffers from this and the scenes neatly interconnect but do not bring us closer to getting to know the character. And although the acting skills of Więcławek and – above all – Hajewska-Krzysztofik make their characters credible, the transformation of the film wife played by Joanna Kulig seems too hasty and unbelievable.
The acting performances in Szumowska’s film are one of its main strengths – both main and supporting roles crafted by great actors. Tomasz Schuchardt, as the vulgar endocrinologist, is great as always. The same could be said of Jacek Braciak as the main character’s brother, tossing between acceptance and resentment. The acting strength is also shown by Marta Nieradkiewicz and Wojciech Mecwaldowski as the heroine’s parents, Anna Tomaszewska and Jerzy Bończak, as well as Mirosław Kropielnicki in an episodic role of a psychiatrist.
In this procession of stars, it is easy to overlook an acting gem. It is Mikołaj Chroboczek, an actor who is appearing more and more frequently on Polish screens and who is still waiting for his big role. His Maliński, a friend who accompanies Andrzej/Aniela on life’s journey, is folksy and familiar, yet full of empathy. The scene in which the massive guy brings his trans friend a curling iron and his wife’s no longer needed cosmetics is one of the most touching images in Woman of…. Also thanks to Chroboczek and his screen truth.
Meanwhile, the truth is somewhat lacking in Szumowska and Englert’s film. Their Woman of…, straddled between journalistic clarity and psychological nuance, defends itself better as a manifesto than a subtle, psychological portrait. Although the filmmakers allow us to be close to the protagonist, one sometimes gets the impression that they are much more interested in the world that surrounds her than in the inner reality of a man facing life’s drama.
- Woman of… (Polish title: ‘Kobieta z…’). Directed and written by Małgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert. Cinematography: Michał Englert. Editing: Jarosław Kamiński. Music: Jimek. Cast: Mateusz Więcławek, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Joanna Kulig, Jacek Braciak, Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Tomasz Schuchardt, Anna Tomaszewska, Jerzy Bończak, Mikołaj Chroboczek, Mirosław Kropielnicki. Premiered: 5 April 2024.
