Film Review: Nic Nie Ginie (Nothing is Lost) (dir. Kalina Alabrudzińska, 2019)

It's only 5 years since Łódź Film School inaugurated the "Diploma Film," a final project for the year's contingent of graduating students. But in that short time the initiative has firmly established itself as an important and anticipated tradition for the School.

Last year, with Monument, Jagoda Szelc produced the best of the Diploma films yet: a hypnotic and unsettling mood piece that finally revealed its hand as a shrewd meta-reflection on the experience of studying at the school itself. The confidence of Szelc's vision was stunning and was probably made possible by the fact that she had already completed and released a first feature, the distinctive Tower. A Bright Day (2017). 

An assistant director on Tower was Kalina Alabrudzińska, who now steps into the director's chair herself with this year's Diploma film Nothing is Lost (Nic Nie Ginie). A much more accessible offering than Monument, Alabrudzińska's film, which she describes as "a sad comedy," doesn't attempt to replicate its predecessor's oddity or intensity, instead treating serious subject matter in a much lighter way. Screened at Koszalin's 38th Youth & Film festival, where it won the prize for Best Directing, the result is an attractive ensemble drama that will likely have far wider general audience appeal than Monument's trippier vision.

That said, Nothing is Lost actually starts out as "meta" as Monument ended up - with a cheeky reflection on "group therapy" scenes in cinema. Such a session is getting underway as the film commences, and finds the characters wondering: "Are we gonna sit in a circle like this? There are scenes like that in movies. Usually the most boring scenes..." This self-reflexive opening establishes the humourous tone of the film, which never becomes a mere mope-fest. Doubtless mindful to incorporate as many of the graduating actors as possible, Alabrudzińska uses the context of the therapy meetings to bring together a group of diverse characters - and then to branch out into snapshots of their lives and relationships outside the sessions.

As  the "lost" or searching protagonists start to open up and "find" something in the therapy, the set-up sometimes gives off Breakfast Club vibes. But, working from her own script, Alabrudzińska prevents the film from degenerating into a series of predictable emotional showdowns. Bonding scenes and so-called "breakthrough moments" tend to be underplayed, and not everything resolves in the way you anticipate (or at all). 

As such, the film avoids obviousness, allowing its characters to retain a bit of mystery. The storytelling is helped by the contribution of cinematographer Nils Croné, who gives the images a clear, warm, burnished look that's very inviting, and by the crisp editing of Piasek & Wójcik (following their work on Ewa Podgorska's brilliant Diagnosis), which moves us fluidly between the therapy sessions and the characters' individual lives.

Still, while the technical side is more than proficient, Nothing is Lost's main asset is its performers, and those who've been lucky enough to see these actors' often amazing stage work over the past year (in new extravaganzas like Fever, devised pieces such as Slippery Words, or contemporary classics like Angels in America) will be particularly delighted to find them taking to the camera with equal assurance.

Alabrudzińska's writing allows the actors to develop characters who are relatable but who go beyond conventional "types." Michał Surosz is lovely as a guy so dedicated to saving a particular endangered species of turtle that all his other relationships are neglected. Wiktoria Filus charms as a single mum trying out Tinder, and Jan Hrynkiewicz delivers delectably mean put-downs with aplomb as the group's most caustic participant. Zuzanna Puławska is funny and touching as a mother-dominated people-pleaser, and charismatic Piotr Pacek shines as an actor with interpersonal issues - so much so that he feels rejected by nature itself. (The film makes nature a motif, in fact: plants, trees and the aforementioned turtles all feature in the protogonists' attempts to connect.)

And in case it seems that the focus is entirely on personal concerns, Nothing is Lost doesn't shy away from the wider context of darker elements of contemporary Polish political reality, either. The most ambitious sequence here is a night-time nationalist gathering attended by Hrynkiewicz's character and featuring Elżbieta Zajko as a firebrand delivering hate speech, with Kamil Rodek and Mateusz Grodecki on hand as colleagues, the latter playing guitar and singing that "The day of mighty Poland is coming."

Some of the smaller roles need further development; one senses a few of the actors' eagerness to go further into the characters than their fleeting appearances allow. But Robert Ratuszny and Faustyna Kazimierska - memorably opening a beer bottle with her teeth! - maximise their brief screen time, while, in one of the best sequences, Karol Franek Nowiński flashes his great grin - surely one of the best smiles the Polish screen has seen - as a pharmacist who pleases Pacek's character by revealing himself to be a fan - before their exchange is given a great comic twist. And Ksenia Tchórzko gets a lovely appearance as a dog-sitting neighbour, when the film belatedly digresses to focus on the therapist, Remek (excellent Dobromir Dymecki), himself.

Such moments cut to the heart of the concern with human interaction which is the main preoccupation of Nothing is Lost. In the introduction to Powidoki / Afterimages, a poetic book of visual essays about Łódź Film School, (di)rector Mariusz Grzegorzek describes the School as "a special place" where "there flows a source of energy that connects people." In its wise and wry portrait of the challenges and possibilities of making contact, Alabrudzińska's likeable film taps into that source.

Nic Nie Ginie / Nothing is Lost  will screen in the Panorama section of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (16 - 21 September). 



NIC NIE GINIE /////// teaser ////// scenariusz i reżyseria Kalina Alabrudzińska from LODZ FILM SCHOOL on Vimeo.

"The most important thing for me is diversity": Łódź Film School Actor Interviews (iv): Ksenia Tchórzko

Ksenia Tchórzko (Photo credit: Julia Klewaniec)

Ksenia Tchórzko plays multiple roles in the Diploma show, Pomysłowe Mebelki z Gąbki (Fever), directed by Mariusz Grzegorzek (for which she won prizes at the Morocco International Drama Schools Festival and the 37th Polish Theatre School Festival). She also plays the Rabbi, Ethel Rosenberg and Hannah Pitt in Angels in America, directed by Małgorzata Bogajewska, and  features in the Diploma film Nic Nie Ginie (Nothing is Lost), directed by Kalina Alabrudzinska. 

Alex Ramon: When did your interest in acting start?

Ksenia Tchórzko: From kindergarten! By the time I got to primary school, I already knew that I wanted to be an actress and really there was nothing else for me. 

AR: Why Łódź Film School?

KT: I think Łódź chose me. I had exams for three schools - Warsaw, Krakow, and Łódź - and this was the one where I was successful. 

AR: What are your feelings about the training here?

KT: There are good and bad things, ups and downs. There are some gaps in the training. You don't end up with particular techniques and methods, for example. On the one hand, that's a downside: I still feel like I need more of those things, and I'm a bit uncomfortable without them. On the other hand, there were some amazing teachers here who gave me a lot of great inspiration and advice.

AR: Which professional actors inspire you, from here in Poland or abroad?

KT: Christoph Waltz is exceptional to me. I very much admire that he's an international actor. It's the kind of career I would hope for. In Poland I notice that there are many actresses who really get into their stride when they're in their 50s. People like Aleksandra Konieczna, Agata Kulesza, Dorota Kolak - they were always great actresses, of course, but they get better and better, and find some of their most interesting roles now they're older. Their way wasn't the usual one, and that's very inspiring to me as a young actress.

AR: Which filmmakers do you admire?

KT: I immediately think about Tarantino! I like old French and Italian cinema very much too, and contemporary directors like Paolo Sorrentino. Here in Poland, directors like Bartosz Konopka, Agnieszka Smoczyńska and Jagoda Szelc are doing such interesting, challenging work. 

AR: Does the political situation in Poland make it difficult for artists right now?

KT: Perhaps, but sometimes when the political situation is not in its best state the culture improves, in a way, because it gives people something to react to strongly and fight against. 

     (Photo: Tomasz Wysocki) 

AR: How was it to work on the first Diploma show, Fever, with Mariusz Grzegorzek - which is a challenging, oppositional show in many ways?

KT: It was so exciting mainly because of Mariusz's personality. Sometimes in the morning he'd be like: "Oh God, I can't do it, I have such a headache!" Then by the afternoon there's no stopping him! We gave him our trust at the beginning and it paid off. It was definitely hard work. Mariusz is the kind of director who has a vision and will do everything to achieve it. I much prefer that to someone who doesn't really know what they want. But there was room for spontaneity, and our suggestions and ideas were always encouraged.

AR: Was the material that he brought in familiar to you?

KT: The Hutsul material was new for me, and it was wonderful to learn about it. We needed that in the show as a contrast. "Swollen Problems" is the kind of thing you can see on TV all the time, but the Hutsul traditions were our soul and it was great to explore them.

Fever (Photo: Filip Szkopiński) 

AR: Do you have some other favourite moments to perform in the show? 

KT: I do like "Swollen Problems," both being in it and watching my colleagues as they try out different things each time. It's very inspiring. And I like the last "Four Miles from Warsaw" sequence very much. I'm close to the audience and can see their reactions as I'm singing. It's my moment of direct contact. 

AR: How was it to perform this very Polish show at the FIESAD festival in Morocco?

KT: It was quite crazy! There were so many people, too many for the room. Reactions were very vivid and vocal - people were shouting out. They liked "Swollen Problems" a lot; this kind of TV show is international and everyone can relate to it. But they were speechless after the last part, that very intense scene.

Fever (Photo: Filip Szkopiński)

AR: How did making Angels in America compare?

KT: At the beginning I thought: No way! I'd seen the HBO series and knew about the iconic Warlikowski production, and I thought there was no way we could do this, or do the piece justice by only doing the first half. Rehearsals weren't so comfortable because we were in Krakow and the change of environment was challenging. And also, I had three roles. But in the end that proved very interesting: this strange combination of characters: a Rabbi, a Mormon, and a Jewish woman. Following in the footsteps of Meryl Streep is quite special! We did a lot of research on American history, and an academic specialist on the play spoke to us. For Polish viewers it can be hard to get to grips with the complicated American context, so this was very helpful. 

I met a Rabbi and Mormons to learn about the cultures and traditions. I like this part of work very much. It was also interesting that Mariusz and Gosia [Bogajewska] work in totally different ways, and have very different personalities as directors. Mariusz has a clearer vision from the beginning. Gosia is more about trying out different things during the rehearsals and asking the actors to prepare individually.

The Angels in America company (Photo: Filip Szkopiński)

AR: How was it to meet Joseph Mydell who played Belize in the original National Theatre production and who saw your production when he visited Łódź? 

KT: It was really touching because he was so moved by the performance. It was amazing that he saw the show for the first time in 25 years in Łódź. And I think that was the moment when I thought: OK, maybe it was worth it after all. Up to that point I didn't feel so confident about the production, but his reaction convinced me that we were doing some good things.

AR: How was working on the Diploma film, Nic Nie Ginie?

KT: I don't have a big part but it was a great experience. I was a bit angry about the situation at first, because not everyone has a part like they did in Monument last year but once I got on set my attitude changed, mostly because of Kalina. She is amazing: her openness, her confidence. It was a short time but I learnt a lot.

AR: How about your future plans or dream roles?

KT: I have some upcoming work in theatre and film, and I'm excited to work in both of those mediums. In terms of dream roles, it's hard to say; there are many things I would like to play. The most important thing for me is diversity. The idea of playing a character of the opposite gender is always interesting. In that way, Angels in America became a dream, playing those three different parts. As it happened I'd started learning Hebrew before I was cast; maybe it was intuition or something. 

I think it's possible to find something interesting about every project. In Angels, I would say that I learnt how to be a supporting actress. It can be challenging not to be at the centre, but through this experience I learnt how to support my friends on stage and to really be there for them. It's one of the main things I take away from this production.

Angels in America is performed for a final time at Teatr Studyjny tonight, 18 June. 

Theatre Review: Angels in America (Anioły w Ameryce) (Teatr Studyjny, Łódź)

Due to the challenge of its length, the extravagance of some of its rhetoric and imagery, and its self-consciousness about its status as an Important American Play, we've become used to thinking of Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes as a huge, starry spectacle: a perspective compounded by Mike Nichols's imperfect 2003 mini-series adaptation for HBO. Yet it's worth remembering Kushner's remarks in his "Playwright's Note" prefacing Part Two of the saga, "Perestroika": "The play benefits from a pared-down style of presentation, with minimal scenery and scene shifts done rapidly [...,] employing the cast as well as stagehands - which makes for an actor-driven event, as this must be." 

That's precisely the approach taken by Małgorzata Bogajewska in her new production of the play at Łódź's Teatr Studyjny. "An actor-driven event" is what this staging, in particular, has to be, since Bogajewska's production is the second Diploma Show for the 2018/2019 graduating contingent of Acting Students at Łódź Film School. This production doesn't rival the first - Mariusz Grzegorzek's thrilling Fever (Pomysłowe Mebelki z Gąbki) - for overall jaw-dropping impact. But it offers some indelible moments and provides the talented cast (several of them familiar from Fever) with multiple opportunities to shine. 

Drawing wholesale on diverse American cultural and historical traditions, Kushner's play has a lot on its mind: it attempts to create a fluid myth structure to explore identity politics, religion, economics and the AIDS crisis in the Reaganite '80s, and boasts characters whose garrulousness can be equal parts exciting and exhausting. The text is well known in Poland not only thanks to the HBO series but also Krzysztof Warlikowski's prize-winning Warsaw production of 2007. Presenting only Part One of the play, "Millennium Approaches," Bogajewska's production inevitably feels a bit truncated; a certain amount of context is lost, and the play's humour is sometimes under-served. (Though the punchline to the gag about the Kosciuszko Bridge being "named after a Polack" inevitably gets a reaction here.)

Yet other elements emerge freshly illuminated in this staging. When it comes to representations of desire, Bogajewska is not a director to hold back - as evidenced by her production of Gabriela Zapolska's 1907 play Ich Czworo, in which Gabriela Muskała and Sambor Czarnota shared a riotous table-top sex scene that prompted two shocked patrons to flee the theatre. And Joanna Jaśko-Sroka's spare approach to the design of this Angels doesn't preclude some wonderfully eccentric touches and moments of bold physicality.

Using the deep stage effectively, Bogajewska keeps the proceedings clear and fluid in the scenes of parallel action and dialogue. With a piano ever-present, several sequences are given a delirious nightclub cabaret vibe, with a bald-headed Belize (played by a female cast member, Isabella Dudziak) crooning "Blue Velvet" and "Why Don't You Do Right?" - the latter song brilliantly recontextualised here as a marginalised character's rebuke to the powerful.

Music, in fact, is an important component throughout, the production seemingly seeking to create a soundtrack of '70s and '80s queer-associated artists. Elżbieta Zajko's Harper assesses her marital woes to the strains of Barbra Streisand's "Woman in Love," while, in their shared hallucination, she and Prior (Robert Ratuszny), bond to Queen's "I'm Going Slightly Mad." Sebastian Śmigielski's Man in the Park is garbed like an escapee from Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" video (Bernard Rose version). More elaborate musical moments - such as an Antarctica bop to "Stayin' Alive" - feel rather forced. But the appearances of the Angel are sensationally effective: spotlighted and sporting Stars and Stripes shorts, Wiktoria Stachowicz's heavenly messenger spreads her wings at the microphone: a punk rock apparition.

There's much to admire in the performances. Kamil Rodek captures the conflicts of the closeted Mormon Joe, his desire and fear startlingly visualised in an unforgettable "wrestling with the angel" moment. Zajko brings both vulnerability and strength to her characterisation of the struggling spouse, retaining her dignity even when kitted out in a bubbly balloon ensemble for the fantasy sequences. Robert Ratuszny's depiction of Prior's physical decline is harrowing, his coughing fits so convincing that they set off contagious bouts in the audience. Ratuszny's scenes with Mateusz Grodecki are intense, and Grodecki finds some surprising sympathetic notes in Louis, the lover who abandons him.

Paweł Głowaty, also the production's choreographer, is exceptional as Roy Cohn, bringing relish to the character's menace, and using voice and posture to evoke age and arrogance in a way that's uncanny for such a young actor. The sensitive Ksenia Tchórzko maximises her appearances as the Rabbi and Hannah, contributing two of the production's most moving moments in the mother/son phone-call scene with Joe - brilliantly staged here to bring the characters into physical proximity that belies their emotional distance - and in the encounter between Cohn and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg.

Without giving too much away, the scene that Bogajewska chooses to bring the evening to a close is surprising yet satisfying, as it offers a gesture towards "Perestroika" and, with particular poignancy for a Polish production, makes this an Angels book-ended by the sound of Jewish voices.

Anioły w Ameryce is currently booking at Teatr Studyjny between 20 - 22 March, 12-14 April and 29 - 30 April. Further information here.

Production images: Filip Szkopiński and Dariusz Pawelec