The Kinodvor Cinema screening of Mug (Twarz) was followed by a Q&A with actress Agnieszka Podsiadlik, who plays the sister of the mutilated protagonist. To moderator Jedrt Jež Furlan Podsiadlik revealed that the Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska and co-screenwriter Michał Englert were a crack creative team who intuitively understood each other and shared a sense of humour, which enhanced the quality of the film. She pointed out that the filming process was entirely spontaneous, and that she saw the movie as a reflection of contemporary Polish society.

The film criticises Polish Catholicism; a scene shows a priest explaining with complete seriousness, “But you have to wait one year for an exorcist”, which is possibly the most effective line in the movie, as the criticism is intense – so serious, in fact, that the characters are unidimensional, depicted as a bigoted mob of reactionaries. There is an almost complete absence of positive characters. Of course, apart from the main protagonist, an outsider longing to escape a deeply conservative rural community and rebelling against the system. In reference to hypocrisy, the actress explained that the accident portrayed in the movie, a real-life incident that received much media attention in Poland, only serves to highlight the nuances in everyday human relationships. That is to say, when getting into an argument we blame the other person for having changed, for being different, unrecognisable. The film thus only makes visible what is symbolic.

Nataša Šušteršič

Photo Iztok Dimc