Fools – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Tomasz Wasilewski (director of United States of Love, awarded Silver Bear for Best Script, as well as the acclaimed Floating Skyscrapers) returns with the most radical film in his oeuvre. An unconventional couple (Marlena is 62, Tomasz is two decades younger) lead a settled life in a seaside town. Their relationship is shaken when Marlena decides to take care of her sick son. It becomes clear from the start that the mundaneness of this relationship is only apparent. After all, Marlena (Dorota Kolak) and Tomasz (Łukasz Simlat) function in a deformed, unreal, at times even surreal world. Exuberant plants take over the interiors, the stormy sea roars, people and birds shout in the room, all of which adds up to an uneasy and extremely poignant story about biology, blood ties, primal impulses and their head-on collision with what we call family.

• The artistic success of Tomasz Wasilewski’s intriguing, surprising and bold Fools is also due to the ensemble working together once again, made up of actors: Dorota Kolak, Łukasz Simlat, Katarzyna Herman, Marta Nieradkiewicz and Tomasz Tyndyk, cinematographer Oleg Mutu (author of cinematography for Mungiu, Aperti, Łoźnica), and creators of evocative, dense scenic design: Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński.