Still from Body/Ciało by Jacek Drygała
Małgorzata Szumowska’s Body/Ciało is just out on DVD with English subtitles. It swept the board as Polish film of the year, it’s editor won the European film editor of the year, and it’s director won a Silver Bear in Berlin. Szumowska is also in the running for best European film director 2015.
Next, the Oscars?
I had to see it to find out.
All Souls’ Day and the Polish elections had just passed, providing the perfect backdrop.
A widowed criminal prosecutor (Janusz Gajos), his anorexic daughter Olga (Justyna Suwała), her therapist Anna (Maja Ostaszewska), who claims to be receiving communications from her dead mother but has troubles of her own… It shouldn’t work, and yet it does, not least due to the skill of the leading actors.
Body/Ciało captures the physical reality and consequences of grief, of political choices and the power of the press in Poland. It manages to do this without getting too heavy or too sentimental – and to be funny. Indeed it ends with the kind of intimate laughter that only comes after you’ve been through a LOT.
Does Anna put Olga in touch with her mother, her father and her own body?
You’ll have to see it to find out.
You can watch the trailer here. But if you want English subtitles, you’ll have to buy the DVD…
Translator, editor, writer, reader
found in translation 
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