Best Polish Movies of 2023

Last year, above all, the Polish cinematography belonged to master Jerzy Skolimowski and his EO (here the j:mag review in French), as well as to the documentarians. Bogna Kowalczyk (Boylesque), Natalia Koryncka-Gruz (Simona), Anna Zakrzewska and Łukasz Ronduda (Lot), Lidia Duda (The Fledglings) and Marek Kozakiewicz (Silent Love) are just some of the names worth mentioning. In 2023, two titles were given the most attention, the first of which was The Peasants, an animated adaptation of Władysław Reymont’s novel that won him the Nobel Literary Prize in 1924. The movie, directed by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman, similarly to their 2017 film, Loving Vincent (here the j:mag audio interview in English of Hugh Welchman), is made using a unique technique of putting static paintings in motion. It also became the official Polish submission in numerous categories of the 96th Academy Awards  (Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Score for Łukasz L.U.C. Rostkowski and Best Original Song for The End of Summer). The second movie was The Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, which became the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, where it also had its world premiere. It depicts the migration crisis on the Polish border with Belarus. However, I won’t discuss any of them here for at least three reasons. Foremost, enough space was devoted to them in the foreign press. Secondly, both have too many issues which don’t make me want to see them again. And last but not least, there are some titles that are far better (and less obvious) and should be given more praise.

In Other Space – Solaris Mon Amour

The best Polish movie of not only 2023, but probably the last decade, is Solaris Mon Amour directed by Kuba Mikurda. The Polish director made himself known as a natural storyteller already in his debut movie, Love Express. Zaginięcie Waleriana Borowczyka (2018), which was a documentary showing the work of another movie maker, Walerian Borowczyk. The movie was shown at the festival of best Polish documentaries, called Millennium Docs Against Gravity, where it won the Chopin’s Nose Prize. Mikurda perfectly balanced drama and humor, keeping the viewers’ attention for the whole screening. His second movie, Escape to the Silver Globe (2021), was dedicated to the circumstances of making Andrzej Żuławski’s On the Silver Globe (1988), and again, it was brilliant. But those who waited for yet another well-told biography were probably very surprised. Solaris Mon Amour, a movie trying to catch the timeless dimension of Stanisław Lem’s book Solaris, lies far away from traditional forms of storytelling. Mikurda has done what every artist should do: crossed boundaries and created a space for philosophical considerations. His awareness in the deployment of narrative tools remind us of both Andriej Tarkowski’s legacy and his approach to the movie fabric, which should be governed by the same rules as poetry, and that’s why, it ought to be void of literalism. As a narrative tool, he used fragments of old documents from the Polish Educational Film Studio to create a collage about grief and longing. The nonlinear and essayistic narration of the movie is reminiscent of Alain Resnais’s masterpiece, Hiroshima mon amour (1959). Mikurda, as well as the French director, put his characters’ personal tragedies next to that of a nation, but instead of the atomic bomb, he talks about the Holocaust and helplessness of humanity with regard to understanding the amount of that kind of evil, all of which makes them similar to Lem’s characters, because they also were helpless in terms of their memories and subconscious. Sadly, in light of the director’s wife’s death, which happened at the time of shooting the movie, it gained another meaning and became a sort of memorial for her. In the deconstructions of time and how it relativizes images of our memory, Solaris Mon Amour also retains some of Charlotte Wells’ filming techniques but still stays far more experimental than Aftersun (2022). Because of the amount of layers and contexts, watching it is more like diving into philosophical contemplation. It’s only 47 minutes long, but it’s definitely not the kind of movie you watch only once. In every screening, you will find new dimensions, motives, and emotions. Mikurda, like no other director, gave the viewer the space for his own thoughts. He trusts our intelligence, does not explain everything, lets us search by ourselves, and turns his movie into what we want it to be. He leaves us with his medium-long masterpiece, which is nothing we’ve experienced before.

Children of the Revolution – Imago

The second Polish movie of 2023 you have to see is Imago directed by Olga Chajdas, being the  winner of the Silver Lion’s award and the Best Actress Award at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia. In her second film, she portrays Ela Góra, a Polish singer from the underground punk scene who became famous in Trójmiasto in the 80s, which was right before communism was replaced by democracy. But the political background does not interest Chajdas as much as the figure of the woman, being both a mother and an artist, does. The screenplay has been written by her and Lena Góra, the daughter of the main protagonist. Góra also plays her mother, which gives the movie a very personal and authentic touch. She gives an outstanding performance, making herself one of the greatest Polish actresses of the young generation, and let me assure you, this kind of talent occurs rarely. The film is a song for the personal freedom of choice and living by our own rules. It deconstructs the figure of a mother, which in Poland, has a very traditional dimension — especially when we look at it through the prism of the contemporary discourse about abortion laws. Chajdas shows the mother’s imperfections by letting her doubt and even question the love for her child. But Imago is also an intense and dark portrait of an artist – a free, rebellious and unapologetic spirit who, at the same time, craves the love and understanding of her own mother, a woman who, because of the times she was born and raised in, had no tools to communicate her own emotions. Chajdas and Góra are trying to end the generational trauma, hoping that the life which is going to be born out of it will have a better future.

Make Love, Not Hate – We Are Perfect

The third movie worth mentioning is We Are Perfect by Marek Kozakiewicz, whose Silent Love was one of last year’s best documentaries. Again, he portrays the excluded members of the LGBT+ community. As a baseline for this movie, he used audition videos for the Polish Netflix production Fanfik directed by Marta Karwowska, which is a story of a teenager conflicted about his biological gender and his journey of self-discovery. Alin Szewczyk who played the title character, similarly to other young people taking part in the audition, is transgender. Kozakiewicz gave them a voice, which was pretty fresh and uncommon in conservative Poland, which typically rejects any form of being different, and especially when it refers to sexual orientation. He listens to their stories about the struggles with self-acceptance, unwanted physicality and being understood by their families. Kozakiewicz has a very light touch for movie direction, knows how to gain trust, as well as make people safe enough to open up in front of the camera, all of which makes his work authentic and natural. It’s also the first Polish movie discussing transgender and nonbinary people on a mainstream platform, giving them a chance to be seen and understood.

Agnieszka Pilacińska

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