Movie “Two Sisters” Łukasz Karwowski tells the story of Jaśmina and Małgorzata, who go to Ukraine to find their father, who was injured during the conflict. Their contact has been sporadic recently, and their past hides many wounds that have had no chance to heal. Their journey together will be an opportunity for reconciliation.
They played the main roles Karolina Rzepa and Diana Zamojska. Although the former played the emotional Jasmine and the latter played the composed Małgosia, initially they were cast in reverse. Only during the casting did the director suggest that they switch characters. “We both quickly began to agree with these decisions,” noted Rzepa. Zamojska added that she was afraid of preparing a new role, and a person completely unlike her, in a short time. “It motivated us to work constantly and talk for many hours to try out these roles,” she admitted.
The film was shot in Ukraine in August 2022, a few months after the Russian invasion began. Zamojska revealed that the project was presented to them as improvised from the beginning. Rzepa described the script as “a skeleton on which we tried to base our improvisations.” She added that while preparing for the role, they recalled their experiences with their own siblings.
According to Zamojska, the script was a treatment, i.e. a list of written scenes, supplemented with psychological portraits of the characters. “We tried to stick to the skeleton, but sometimes we went to a location and it was dangerous there, so we had to change plans and shoot a different scene that day,” she said about the nature of work on the set. Sometimes it was necessary to come up with new scenes on set, between shots. Rzepa summed up the entire process as “creative and creativity-stimulating.” “I like working with Łukasz (Karwowski),” she added.
Due to the shooting in a country where the conflict is taking place, extraordinary security measures had to be taken. Production members were protected by the Territorial Defense Forces, and all locations were checked in advance. Five people from Poland participated in the photos, the remaining crew members were from Ukraine. Both actresses admitted that they felt safe on the set.