Country: Poland | Genre: Fiction | Year: 1979 | Duration: 121’ | In Polish with Ukrainian and English subtitles
About the film
A young director comes to a small town near Warsaw to stage a famous classic play in a modern setting. The leader of the local acting troupe sees this performance as the work of his entire life. Since he plans to play the best role of his career, working on the play becomes his battlefield with the director, who has his own vision. The Tension extends beyond the stage and causes conflict between the actors, with the husband dreaming of victory on stage while his wife's career diminishes in the shadow of another's ambitions.
Reasons to watch
One of the strongest debuts in Polish cinema of the 1970s, which began Agnieszka Holland's path to international recognition. In a restrained, realistic manner, she explores artistic and personal conflicts in a small provincial troupe. This is a film about what remains behind the scenes: ego, ambition, gender inequality, class tension and the difficulties of collective creativity. Drawing on her own experience working in the theatre, Holland creates a multi-layered, ironic and emotionally accurate story, permeated with the complexity of human relationships, dark humour and that inner courage that has become her signature.
about the director
Agnieszka Holland is a Polish film director, screenwriter and actress. She began her film career by working with Krzysztof Zanussi and her mentor, Andrzej Wajda. Provincial Actors was her first film to be released on the big screen. The film became one of the most prominent representatives of the Cinema of Moral Anxiety movement in Polish cinema and was also awarded at Cannes. Holland’s films have been nominated for an Oscar multiple times – Europe, Europe (1990) for Best Screenplay, and Bitter Harvest (1985) and In the Dark (2012) in the Best Foreign Language Film category. In addition, Holland worked with Krzysztof Kieślowski on the script for his trilogy Three Colours. She is also one of the directors of the first Polish series for Netflix, 1983.
Festivals
Cannes Film Festival, 1980 (FIPRESCI Award)