WOMEN’S DAYa film by Maria Sadowska

PRESSBOOKPOLAND 2012

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…

SYNOPSIS

Script:

Directing: DoP:Production Manager:Set Design:Costumes:Make-up:Music:Sound: Editing: Artistic Supervisor:

KATARZYNA TERECHOWICZ, MARIA SADOWSKAMARIA SADOWSKARADOSŁAW ŁADCZUKKUBA KOSMAJOANNA KACZYŃSKAANNA ENGLERTOLGA NEJBAUERMARIA SADOWSKATOMASZ WIECZOREKJAROSŁAW KAMIŃSKIDARIUSZ GAJEWSKI

Producer: Jacek Bromski, Dariusz Gajewski, Ewa JastrzębskaProduction: Studio Munka - Stowarzyszenie Filmowców PolskichCo-financed by: Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej

Cast:

Katarzyna KwiatkowskaEryk LubosJulia CzurajDorota KolakAnita Jancia Grażyna BarszczewskaKlara BielawkaEwa Konstancja Bułhak

HALINAERYKMISIAMARYLAJADZIAHALINA’S MOTHERANDŻELIKAANIA

Bartłomiej Firlet Zina Kerste Agata Kulesza Leonard Pietraszak Karolina Dafne Porcari Elżbieta Romanowska Maria Seweryn Dorota Wierzbicka

INSTRUKTORJOURNALISTPSYCHOLOGISTATTORNEY GAWLIKITALIAN’S ASSISTANTMONIATEACHERBEATA KARWOWSKA

CAST & CREW

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.

ABOUT THE FILM

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.

THE AUTHORS

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

Munk Studio Polish Filmmakers Association7, Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.00-068 Warsaw, PolandTel. +48 22 556 54 83Fax: +48 22 556 54 69E-mail: m.fabijanska@sfp.org.pl www.studiomunka.pl