IN “On a Rainy Monday” Justyna Mytnik Kaczmarek she played Marta, the older sister of fifteen-year-old Klara (Julia Polaczek). The girls live with their mother (Jowita Budnik) in a town in southern Poland at the turn of the century. During the Wet Monday celebration, Klara was hurt by one of the boys. Marta advises her not to tell anyone about it, not even her mother, and not to seek the identity of the attacker.
In turn, in “Losing balance” Korek Bojanowski played Maja, a final-year acting student. The girl is preparing for her diploma, but discouraged by subsequent rejections after castings, she does not intend to follow this career path. Unexpectedly, a new lecturer – a renowned director (Tomasz Schuchardt) – takes over her year’s diploma. He seems to see something in Maya. Although he initially seems open and supportive, his methods prove to be crossing boundaries.
In Gdynia we can watch two films with your participation: “Loss of Balance” and “Wet Monday”. In the first one, you play an actress in quite a difficult situation. He must fight for himself and confront, let’s call it a difficult lecturer. In turn, in “Lany Monday” you are in a sisterly relationship and you also have to fight for independence. How did you come across these projects and what attracted you to these heroines?
Nel Kaczmarek: – I came across “Utrata balance” after already knowing the director Korek Bojanowski. A year before the shooting, he invited me to talk about one of the first versions of the script. At that time, I was starting my third year at the Academy of Theater Arts in Krakow, and he asked me more as a friend who was in the process of learning. To talk and exchange experiences. The cork is also very open and absorbent, so that was great. This is how our work began, without thinking about me as an actor at all.
– It was very interesting for me because I walked around the school, searched, observed it all. I guess I was looking for the wrong word. The observation was a starting point for me to think about this scenario and what the film would be about. So we were talking via email at three in the morning: “Man, this, this and that is happening.” Such mechanisms occur, such. What the group does to you, what it does to you all year round. Years – lower, higher, hierarchy at school. It was a valuable experience for me to observe in some passive and completely non-judgmental way. I didn’t care about looking for good and evil – just as this film is not about that – but about observing how it all functions and works. Then, after a year of conversations and working together, I was invited by Korek to a casting. Once I was cast, we were looking for more characters.
– I got into “Lany Monday” the traditional way, through a casting. This job was completely different because I had to focus on myself. I built my heroine through some of my experiences and knowledge. It was no longer observation and conversation, but reading books and delving into the topic of trauma and women’s intuition. What resources we have and what we can have. This was extremely important to me.
“Wet Monday” is a film that makes extensive use of elements such as folklore and certain rituals. We meet your heroine when she watches another character melting madder. It is related to folklore, but also to closeness to nature.
– Yes, and this tradition. It’s buried somewhere now.
It also seems to be an interesting reference to things that are seemingly less and less present in our lives. A reminder of them.
– It was very valuable for me to see all these themes in the film. Herbology, plantains that were buried somewhere by religions, now the prevailing norms, and our Slavic heritage has an amazing history. We have Slavic legends, even Slavic gymnastics. Thanks to this film, I was able to delve deeper into this world. These were completely new things for me, but incredibly interesting. How we dealt with herbalism, natural medicine, pickles. These are things that have been displaced somewhere by commerce, the modern world and new orders, and which, I think, lie dormant in some of us. And it’s nice to discover it in yourself.
In “Lany Monday” you played the daughter of the heroine played by Jowita Budnik. Tell me about that meeting on set.
– It was great. Jowita is a very specific woman, but also open. We gave each other a lot of space. When we met, together with Julia Polaczek and Weronika Kozakowska, we had a number of rehearsals behind us. We created our world somewhere there. Jowita did not participate in rehearsals with us because of other photos. And she came onto the set and was our mother. It was amazing. We figured things out in a second. There is a scene where Jowita says: “Give me the medicines.” I can’t find them, she comes and (takes them out of the cabinet). “Mother would do that. She’s not looking. She knows where everything is.” This was the foundation of our relationship. Holding a hand over us, but not dominating either.
In “Wet Monday” you play a heroine who is burdened with a certain trauma. At the same time, you showed this heroine as strong, independent, who can decide for herself and control her own fate. How did you find that balance between portraying her as strong and hurt at the same time?
– For me, the key thing was that Maja from “Utrata z balance” is somehow self-confident and independent, and Marta in “Wet Monday”… I wanted it all to be superficial. This is a girl who thinks she knows (everything) but knows nothing. She doesn’t know herself, she doesn’t have the resources, she’s not aware of her limits, but she thinks a lot. This confidence is somewhere dictated by the fact that he really has no choice but to believe in what he has. The key was that she was a small town girl. From Bystrzyca, which I greet warmly and I bow to all the inhabitants who are currently fighting the flood.
– This small-town nature determines every decision you make. I remember going out to my grandmother’s house and “you know what people will say, people are looking, it’s a block of flats”. Everyone knows each other. There’s no way you go out on the street and your mom doesn’t know exactly where you are. If you assume that the most important thing for you is what other people say, you lose yourself completely. For me, this is what Marta is like. Lost between the opinions of others and the constant fear of “what the group will say, what the family will say.” And if you don’t help yourself, you won’t help anyone else. And Marta can’t help herself and doesn’t even know that she needs help. This is where its strength comes from. Out of ignorance. This was my starting point for researching this character.
It’s interesting what you said about it being connected to “Loss of Balance.” It is also related to the fact that your heroine experiences a certain form of violence and abuse that she does not want to come to terms with, while at the same time the passivity of the group is capable of turning a blind eye and sweeping it under the carpet just to achieve its own goals. I wonder how you looked at this heroine from the second film.
– When we talked to Korek and built this character, we wanted to show that she is a girl who can cope in life. She has self-confidence that is not insolent or imposing in any way, but decides that – “I tried acting, it didn’t work out for so long – ok, cool, I’ll find another path for myself, I can finish other studies and that’s it” It’s okay too.” Based on this common sense, it determines why Maja does not agree to the professor’s behavior and how she acts. The only problem is that she thinks she has control over this manipulation. I don’t know if you can do that if you’re not a manipulator. This is where Maja’s steps begin.
– I think that she gets to know herself through stimuli, through meetings with others, through the decisions of others, and Marta from “Lany Monday” gets to know herself thanks to her relationship with her sister and the courage that her sister has, not her. She has the strength of denial that Clara lacks. This is the moment that makes you get to know yourself and be able to change. The last scene in “Wet Monday” is crucial for me. This is a woman’s cry for freedom that can be fully screamed when you have other supportive women around you. When you’re not alone. However, when it comes to Maja from “Loss of Balance”, the situation is that she is lonely all the time, until the very end. It’s interesting to me that we still don’t know what happened to Maja or what would have happened if that professor hadn’t come into her life at all. I think this loneliness is her way.
The audience’s reactions to this film are interesting, because it’s not like Maja arouses only empathy. There are also critical comments about her, that when manipulated she becomes a manipulator herself. How did you look at it?
– For me it was extremely important to show it from a human perspective. We are people who encounter mistakes, make them ourselves, and try to fix them ourselves. I really wanted Maja not to be a person who is simply liked and accepted or disliked.
So that it’s not black and white?
– Yes. Just like I was building a relationship with Maja for a year before the shooting, all the time “figuring out” this character. I wanted the viewer who would watch her story to also build a relationship with her. To put it trivially, don’t let it be flat, because no one is like that. Nothing is one-dimensional. I really wanted to build Maja’s character this way. Even when we were acting out a scene from Macbeth, I tried to make mistakes in a controlled way, just like actors make mistakes during rehearsals, although I know this scene very well because I did it in my second year at school. For me it was super important to make mistakes in such moments. For me, it’s great that it annoys someone, irritates someone, and someone follows it. That’s the point. That’s why characters are created, that’s why we watch different stories. To have your say.