Difficulty of human relations in a 3-cornered tale: a neurotic woman, idealistic young man and his mother. Tomek is a clean-cut, high-minded geography student. He lives with his mother Zofia, a sensitive, practicing Catholic, like her son. When he meets Julia, a depressed woman older than he, he first tries to comfort her, then invites her to stay with him and his mother. Tomek makes a trip to West Berlin to visit his well-off father. He refuses to take money from him and looks for work as a house painter. Julia ends up in a rest home for treatment, while Tomek is trying to make their relationship work.
Acting
Janda's depression so real you'll need a nap after.
Direction
Zanussi makes repression look almost beautiful.
Writing
Dialogue that stings like a confessional booth.
Director
Krzysztof Zanussi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in 1989 as Eastern Bloc crumbled; Zanussi deliberately stripped away political metaphor to focus on universal moral paralysis.
Artur Żmijewski later became a controversial right-wing politician—making his performance as the self-righteous Tomek accidentally prophetic.
PL
