At a time when Poland’s conservative government is tightening the screws on LGBTQ activists and transgender people who have to fight for their basic rights, leading directors Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Never Gonna Snow Again) have come up with the remarkable story of a trans woman who spends the first half of her life as a man, as society slowly open up, in Woman Of… (Kobieta Z…)
The timing of this Polish-Swedish co-prod could not be more perfect, with parliamentary elections coming up next month in Poland amid a divisive debate over the right to live one’s own sexual identity. (Poland is the only E.U. country that does not recognize same-sex marriage.) Szumowska, who has won Silver Bears in Berlin for her earlier films Body (2015) and Mug (2018), and co-director, writer and cinematographer Englert struggled to finance this long-cherished project, and its inclusion in competition at Venice is a tribute to their perseverance.
Woman of… takes its incomplete title from the masterpieces of Andrzej Wajda, Man of Iron and Man of Marble, but it also brings to mind another of Szumowska’s films about repressed sexuality, In the Name of, which focused on a Catholic priest whose vocation was a way to escape his own desire for men.
Andrzej is also the birth name of Aniela Wesoly, the quiet, unassuming but unstoppable protagonist, whose 45-year-long journey to live her life as a woman is the subject of the film. Played as a young man by the winsome Mateusz Wieclawek, a charming day laborer, Andrzej dodges the draft in the 1970s when he is forced to take his socks off at the recruitment center and so reveals his painted toenails. But at the same time, he is courting a young nurse named Izabela (Joanna Kulig, who brings all the sensuality of her role in Cold War to a far less glamorous role), who is crazy about him, too. Their love story will have its ups and downs over the course of the film, as Izabela struggles to accept her husband’s gradual transformation into a woman, which goes against every social, religious, political and legal prejudice in their small provincial town. Yet the flame that brought them together refuses to go out completely and Woman of… is at its most touching as a tenacious love story.
Events take place over a long period of time, giving the screenwriters a chance to describe Wesoly’s life and personality in detail while voyaging through Polish history in an expressionistic, often humorous time trip. Editor Jaroslaw Kaminski cuts rapidly from each event to its logical conclusion, as passionate sex between Andrzej and Izabela is followed by a rollicking wild wedding, followed by the birth of their first son Jacek. We are in the 1980s and the ancient town walls now sport painted Solidarity signs protesting the Communist government. There are big marches that the Wesolys take part in. Andrzej begins to be less passionate with Izabela in bed and discovers he has low testosterone levels.
In 1989 the Berlin Wall falls, along with the town statues. The local film theater advertises Pretty Woman and The Double Life of Veronique on the marquee, while Andrzej starts wearing high heels, make-up and dresses at home and in the street. Izabela catches him cross-dressing but he doesn’t back down. Doctors prescribe more testosterone
By now the hero is a heroine. Aniela, delicately played by veteran actress Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, is older now, her face lined and tired, but she is more determined than ever to live as the woman she is. Her brother sets her up in the lucrative business of selling international phone cards, which helps finance the expensive drugs she needs. Despite a lot of tension in the family, Izabela gives birth to their second son. But crisis looms: to legally be recognized as a woman, Aniela will have to divorce her wife, and courtroom scenes play out with a sad fatality that mocks the senseless laws governing marriage and family life.
This is a long film – well over two hours – and the delightful technical inventiveness of the first hour, led by the amusing Polish expressionism of Englert’s cinematography and Marek Zawierucha’s sets out of a claustrophobic fairy tale, cannot be sustained. The last part of the film drops its whimsical tone to follow Aniela’s painful path to transition. The good news is that by 2015 she is no longer alone in her journey.
Director, screenplay: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert
Cast: Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Joanna Kulig, Bogumila Bajor, Mateusz Wieclawek
Producers: Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska, Bogna Szewczyk-Skupien, Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert, Katarzyna Jordan-Kulczyk, Gregory Jankilevitsch, Jonas Kellagher
Cinematography: Michal Englert
Editing: Jaroslaw Kaminski
Production design: Marek Zawierucha
Costume design: Anna Englert
Music: Jimek
Sound: Marcin Jachyra, Kacper Habisiak, Marcin Kasinski
Production companies: Nomad Films (Poland), Common Ground Pictures (Sweden), Film i Väst (Sweden)
World Sales: Memento International
Venue: Venice Film Festival (competition)
In Polish
132 minutes
