Scream

A Warsaw odyssey by one of the most important Polish female directors. Barbara Sass portrays a woman’s frustration and hopelessness which resonate with the capital’s shady corners, seen by the main protagonist as dark, hostile labyrinths. Marianna is freshly out of jail; she lives in the Praga district and gets a job in a luxurious rest-home. There she meets Marek who helps her see a brighter future for herself, but also starts to understand how unevenly privilege is distributed. Even though her case is lost, she fights desperately and makes risky choices: she enters an unequal relationship with a wealthy tenant of the facility, she regularly goes back to her toxic home and falls victim to old habits. Dorota Stalińska’s daring role – she’s feisty and doesn’t let herself be pushed around – allows this ‘low-life’ character to stand tall, although disappointed and filled with false hope. Sass’s feminist film is a loud scream that cannot be silenced.

Patrycja Mucha

Barbara Sass (1936–2015) was a Polish director and screenwriter. She started out by making short television films. Her first full-length film Without Love won the award for best debut at the Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk in 1980. All her films (apart from Caged, 1987) depict women. Presented against a background of various centuries they create a universal and distinct voice in women’s cinema, which is something of a rarity in Poland.