Slajd 1

PRESSBOOK
POLAND 2012
92’
www.womensday-film.pl
The feature film debut by the singer, composer and music producer convinced
the jury with its presentation of "a strong woman trying everyday to make
ends meet in an unjust and cruel world. A beautifully told story of courage and
fighting spirit.”
FilmFestival Cottbus Jury
„A engaged social drama, made with a light touch and featuring an
outstandingly stunning performance by Katarzyna Kwiatkowska.”
Tomasz Raczek, www.film.dziennik.pl
„Well-known for her sparkling comedy roles, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska has
created one of the most fascinating and expressive characters to come out of
Polish cinema in recent years, revealing a surprising, and hitherto unknown
side of herself in this portrayal of an independent woman who hurls down the
gauntlet and takes on a corporation.”
www.interia.pl
FESTIVALS
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Warsaw Film Festival 2012/Poland – international premiere
Film Festival Cottbus 2012/Germany – GRAND PRIX
Film Festival Kinopolska 2012/Paris – Audience Award
„Young&Cinema” Festival of Film Debuts Koszalin 2012/Poland –Best
Script Award
Göteborg International Film Festival 2013/Sweden
Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2013/Germany
Glasgow International Film Festival 2013/UK
SYNOPSIS
Halina, a modest cashyer in a chain store is dreaming of a better
life for herself and her gifted 13 years old daughter-Misia. She
soon gets her chance as Halina becomes the store manager. She
discovers that the price for a higher salary and a better standard
of living is dishonesty, manipulation and deceit. She turns from
victim to villain to her former cashyer friends. She is so
consumed with her work that she failes to notice her daughter’s
addiction
to
computer
games.
She will soon have to start her journey for forgiveness…
CAST & CREW
Script:
KATARZYNA TERECHOWICZ,
MARIA SADOWSKA
MARIA SADOWSKA
RADOSŁAW ŁADCZUK
KUBA KOSMA
JOANNA KACZYŃSKA
ANNA ENGLERT
OLGA NEJBAUER
MARIA SADOWSKA
TOMASZ WIECZOREK
JAROSŁAW KAMIŃSKI
DARIUSZ GAJEWSKI
Directing:
DoP:
Production Manager:
Set Design:
Costumes:
Make-up:
Music:
Sound:
Editing:
Artistic Supervisor:
Producer: Jacek Bromski, Dariusz Gajewski, Ewa Jastrzębska
Production: Studio Munka - Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich
Co-financed by: Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej
Cast:
Katarzyna Kwiatkowska
Eryk Lubos
Julia Czuraj
Dorota Kolak
Anita Jancia
Grażyna Barszczewska
Klara Bielawka
Ewa Konstancja Bułhak
HALINA
ERYK
MISIA
MARYLA
JADZIA
HALINA’S MOTHER
ANDŻELIKA
ANIA
Bartłomiej Firlet
Zina Kerste
Agata Kulesza
Leonard Pietraszak
Karolina Dafne Porcari
Elżbieta Romanowska
Maria Seweryn
Dorota Wierzbicka
INSTRUKTOR
JOURNALIST
PSYCHOLOGIST
ATTORNEY GAWLIK
ITALIAN’S ASSISTANT
MONIA
TEACHER
BEATA KARWOWSKA
ABOUT THE FILM
Maria Sadowska – director, screenplay and music:
Dariusz Gajewski of Munk Studio gave me the first script. It was Kasia Terechowicz’s
diploma work and for me, it was the springboard. While I was doing the research with
which I began work on developing the script, I met a number of people whom the story
touched upon directly; check-out staff and members of the Victims of Large Retail
Chains Association. They gave me access to their case files and I was able to delve into
them. And then, once I had the outline of the story, I began working with Kasia
Terechowicz.
It seems to me that the most interesting thing about the film is that it's a story about
a fight, a story about rebellion, a story about people who are oppressed and unable to
fight for what’s theirs. They have this passivity inscribed somewhere within
themselves and they have to search for the internal strength to fight and for the road
to freedom.
It’s also quite simply a story about a woman. There’s a lack of interesting female
characters in Polish cinema. In a sense, this entire tale is based on Halina’s awakening
strength for the fight. However, the key moment is when she sees that the matter is no
longer her private affair and that she’s fighting for more than simply herself.
It’s a story about good and evil, as well. And, in that sense, what we have here is a
little like the classic code of the Western; a lone figure, standing for a just cause,
gathers allies in the unequal fight against the lawless. Although this is obviously
‘Western-like’ in huge inverted commas and it shouldn’t be taken literally.
First and foremost, Halina is a mother, a single mother striving to provide for her child.
She has a girl-next-door appeal and I think we like her for that and it’s why we can all
see something of ourselves in her. Kasia Kwiatkowska brought that to the role, there’s
something about her that means we quite simply like her. From amongst the
numerous people I invited to test for the role, it was Kasia who beguiled me. When I
looked at her, I saw that woman, a woman who could be a check-out ‘girl’ and, at one
and the same time, a warrior.
ABOUT THE FILM
Maria Sadowska, cd.
I think that the film has a very strong social undertone and even though it’s actually
already proved possible to do a great deal about those supermarkets, it’s been
possible to eliminate and change a number of things, nevertheless, there’s still a lot
that needs doing. It’s an issue that remains current and should be aired all the time.
I’d like the film to prompt thought about the fact that we're all human. So that we
remember the people about whom little is said, who are somewhat forgotten. I’d also
like the story to give the audience some general food for thought, for reflection about
capitalism and the mechanisms by which it operates.
The notion that I’d create the music for the film appeared quite late on, it wasn’t the
idea from the outset. The truth is that I made the decision when the film was in the
late stages of editing. When I was looking for music and wondering what to do about
it, I though to myself that, actually, I’d like to try, to take on the challenge and set
myself to do the music as well.
So the sequence of events was absolutely standard; first came the film and then came
the music to it. What usually happens is that music has its own ideas for itself; making
music is always an adventure. To start with, I more or less know what I want to
achieve, but then the music transports me and the sound takes the lead and I follow it.
And that’s exactly what happened here. The music turned out differently from what I’d
initially expected, but I'm delighted that it is what is.
The twenty minutes of sound that went into the film are also going to be a very
interesting starting point for me in creating an entire album. I’m planning to extend
the pieces, transform them into full numbers in their own right and they’ll function as
the concept for the album.
ABOUT THE FILM
Katarzyna Terechowicz – screenplay:
“Women’s Day” depicts several important sociological, moral and economic
phenomena through the film’s central character, Halina Radwan. The character is both
pivotal and symbolic. She’s a single mother living in a small town, a woman who's
been abandoned by her husband, struggling against poverty and engaging in the daily
fight for survival. She’s a typical victim, of society, men, family, circumstances and the
system. She is, quite simply, the embodiment of victimhood. And she does something
which is frankly impossible, stupendously difficult; she breaks out of that stereotype,
seizes the initiative, takes her fate into her own hands and finally goes on the attack,
bringing others with her in her wake. She has to set herself against not only the enemy
from without, the retail chain, but also against the consequences of her actions and
her own past, which demands enormous courage and humility. As a result, her fight is
multidimensional and is all the more important for that. An essential metamorphosis
occurs in Halina, an awakening of her consciousness of herself, her history, her place in
society and of what's right and what’s wrong.
You could say that “Women’s Day” draws on certain associations with a Western;
there’s the hero-as-loner, there's redemption and there's the battle between good and
evil. Halina, an ordinary woman, a humble check-out ‘girl’, a girl next door, discovers in
herself the power of the ‘sheriff’ who takes on lawlessness, social injustice, alone.
This is certainly a film about women and for women; we have a charismatic central
character who grows, within whom the seeds of rebellion against manipulation spring
forth, who has had enough of being a victim and wants to be something more than a
‘good little girl’, an obedient employee, a good homemaker, wife, mother and lover…
But, in truth, there's something here for everyone, because it is, quite simply, a slice of
our lives, our story of the transformations, moral, social and economic, which have
come about in our country and which continue to come about.
ABOUT THE FILM
Joanna Kaczyńska – set design:
The concept for the set design sprang from the screenplay; the reality within which our
story is played out is tightly defined and leaves little to the imagination. It’s realistic to
the hilt and so are the settings. And that’s what Radek Ładczuk and I concentrated on
and it was a wonderful thing that Maria trusted us and gave us absolute freedom in
the matter. We focused on finding a way for that world, despite its realism, to become
a film world, in other words, a visual force for cohesion. The choice of locations,
interiors and colours was very much thought through in terms of precisely that
cohesiveness. We prepared thoroughly, each to their own. We all talked to each other a
lot and I think there was a lot of mutual inspiration. For the main setting, we chose the
small town of Wyszków, in the north-east of Poland. I went there and realised that this
was it. We shot the exteriors there and the interiors in Warsaw. The shop was the most
difficult and it was Karolina Zielonka who found that, near Grójec, not far south of
Warsaw.
I think that it’s an important film, it touches on fundamental issues. Everyone’s
enormous enthusiasm and commitment meant that it was a joy to work on, which is
something that doesn’t happen often.
ABOUT THE FILM
Katarzyna Kwiatkowska – Halina:
When I was given the script to read, I liked it immensely. Once I’d read it, I thought to myself that I was
going to be horribly jealous of the actress who got the role. Because the story really struck a chord
with me; very feministic and very much about friendship, about overcoming one’s own limitations and
about the fact that you can have faith in yourself, that you can fight and that it’s worth doing.
Creating a character is resultant on the fact that it’s part intuition, partly the way you imagine a given
character. Then you base it partly on yourself, but also partly not on yourself; I always find it
stimulating when I have to play someone who's far removed from me. And so, I imagined for myself
that this Halina Radwan is kind of uptight, often unsure of herself, someone who finds it very hard to
accept compliments, who's embarrassed. And that she’s not at all the kind of woman who’s the life
and soul of the party, that she’s quiet and introverted.
Maria Sadowska helped me enormously in creating the role. She was so very prepared and so very
well prepared that she had some of the character’s reactions sketched out in her mind.
I’m very pleased with the collaboration on set, both with Maria and with my fellow actors; Eryk's a
highly creative partner. It was an absolute idyll, a brilliant adventure and a wonderful time; I was, and
I am, delighted and I hope that people will enjoy the final effect.
Eryk Lubos – Eryk
The role of Eryk was written in a way that goes against the type that's imposed on me in a sense. I
saw it as a chance to show my other possibilities as an actor; usually, I play characters who are highly
expressive and full of combativeness and conflict, while Eryk’s more composed, more muted and, well,
he goes around in a suit. From the moment we started working on the role, Maria Sadowska guided
me in the direction that she believed to be the most appropriate. We went into rehearsal with Kasia
and slowly I started sketching Eryk, who's deeply entangled in the corporate system. He also knows
how to get the employees entangled in it to such an extent that they're as indebted as it's possible to
be to the mother-corporation and, really, the only thing to excuse him is that his wife’s extremely ill.
THE AUTHORS
Maria Sadowska - director, screenplay and music. Singer, composer, arranger and producer, she
graduated from the Academy of Film and Television in Warsaw and the Directing Department of the
National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. She has a number of music videos to her name,
made for a range of artists, including Kasia Nosowska and Renata Przemyk. Her feature etude, Wing,
was screened at numerous international film festivals in cities such as Moscow, Taipei, Bologna,
Barcelona, Istanbul and Paris. Her Non-Stop Colour, made under the auspices of the Munk Studio’s 30
Minutes programme, was one of three short stories that made up the omnibus film Demaquillage,
which was presented at the 34th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Her other films to date are Interrogation, The Moment Before…, A Few Scenes from the Life of an
Artist, Who Am I Still, Zmogus-Zuvis (Fish Man) and Love Me A Little… .
Katarzyna Terechowicz – co-author. Graduate of the Faculties of Graphic Art and Set Design at
Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, as well as in Screenplay Studies at the National Film, Television and
Theatre School in Łódź, she is a screenwriter, graphic artist, author of children's and winner of a
number of literary and screenwriting competitions. She also writes for TV serials, namely M jak miłość
(L for Love) and Głęboka Woda (The Deep Water), which received the Gold Plaque for a Dramatic
Series in Chicago’s 2012 Hugo International Television Awards competition.
Radosław Ładczuk – cinematographer. Born in Szczecin in 1978, he graduated in Cultural Studies from
the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. His work as a cinematographer includes
Suicide Room and You’re God and the documentaries North of Calabria and At the Edge of Russia, as
well as adverts.
Joanna Kaczyńska – set design. In 1999, she obtained her degree in Amsterdam, from the Gerrit
Rietveld Academy, a centre for the study of Fine Arts and Design. In 2010, she was nominated for an
Eagle, the Polish Film Awards for the design for The Polish-Russian War. Her film credits include The
Miracle Seller, Essential Killing, Blood from Blood and a multitude of serials.
Munk Studio which operates within the structure of the Polish Filmmakers Association,
produces short and full-length debut films. Young artists who are seeking to make their
first film can depend on Munk Studio for support and guidance during the entire
process, from the development of their project, throughout its production under fully
professional conditions, to the widest possible promotion of the finished product.
At the Munk Studio, our primary concern is to ensure that young filmmakers can
develop their talent under supportive conditions. We operate under the conviction that
what is vital for a director making their crucial debut film is a creative atmosphere and
the establishment of individualised conditions for growth. At the Munk Studio, every
project has its Artistic Mentor, who guarantees individual, substantive support at every
stage of the work on the film. The Artistic Programmes Committee also watches over
the progress of the various projects. We strive to reflect the best traditions of the
Zespoły Filmowe, Poland's former, unique film units; our young directors enter into
penetrating discussions of their own and their colleagues' screenplays during weekly
meetings. We immerse young artists in the work systems of professional film
production, whilst, at one and the same time, assuring them of the time they need for
the optimal development of their talent in order to achieve the very best final effect
attainable.
Dariusz Gajewski, Programme Director, Munk Studio
Bartosz Konopka's Fear of Falling, produced by the Munk Studio is both the director's
first fulllength feature and the Studio's. Bartosz Konopka received an Oscar nomination
in 2010 for his documentary short, Rabbit à la Berlin. Maria Sadowska's full-length
feature Women's
Day is our second film. The Studio is currently working on the development of further
full-length feature debuts to be made by Poland's most talented young directors.
Debut shorts can be made with the Munk Studio under the auspices of three programmes:
Our shorts are presented at a wide range of international festivals and two have been nominated for the European
Film Award, namely, Glass Trap, a short documentary directed by Paweł Ferdek (2009) and Hanoi-Warsaw, a short
feature directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, which went on to win the award in 2010. In 2011, our short
documentary, A Piece of Summer, directed by Marta Minorowicz, won the Grand Prix at the ISFF Clermont-Ferrand.
This year, our short feature, Drawn from Memory, directed by Marcin Bortkiewicz, was selected for the prestigious
Quinzaine de Réalisateurs, which accompanies the Cannes Film Festival.
Munk Studio has produced nearly one hundred shorts since 2006. Amongst the awards they
have received are:
„Don't be afraid of the dark room”, dir. Kuba Czekaj, short feature
Special Jury Award, Canada International Film Festival, Canada 2010
Grand Prize, Kyoto International Student Film and Video Festival, Japan, 2010
Best Short Film, First Step Film Festival, Tirana, Albania, 2010
Best Short Film, International Meeting of Cinema, TV & Video Avanca Film Festival, Portugal, 2010 The
The Silver Hobby-Horse for the Director of the Best Fiction Film, Krakow Film Festiwal, 2010
"Hanoi-Warsaw", dir. Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, short feature
European Film Academy Award for Best Short Fiction, Estonia 2010
Best Film in Young Filmmakers Section, Batumi Arthouse Film Festival, Georgia 2010
EY 2010 Special Award at Festival in Cottbus, Germany 2010
Premier Premio "Alcine" European Short Film Competition, Spain 2010
Ladies First Winner, Lady Filmmakers FF, USA 2010
„Battleheart”, dir. Tomasz Matuszczak, short feature
Special Jury Mention – Festival del Film Locarno, 2012
"A Piece of Summer", dir. Marta Minorowicz, documentary
The Golden Dove Short- DOK Leipzig, Germany 2010
Grand Prix - Clermont-Ferrand SFF, France 2011
„The Whistle”, dir. Grzegorz Zariczny, documentary
Grand Prix - Sundance Film Festival, 2013
Best Documentary – T-Mobile New Horizons IFF,Poland 2012
"Ritual", dir. Zbigniew Czapla, animation
Diploma in the First Professional Film Category - IFF KROK Russia 2010
Best Debut - IAFF TOFUZI Georgia 2011
Munk Studio
Polish Filmmakers Association
7, Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.
00-068 Warsaw, Poland
Tel. +48 22 556 54 83
Fax: +48 22 556 54 69
E-mail: m.fabijanska@sfp.org.pl
www.studiomunka.pl