Restless sounds, the effect of stroboscopic light, from which emerge the words of one of the most outstanding Polish actors, which he was supposed to address to his students. “I have to rape you so that life doesn’t rape you.” Korek Bojanowski’s “Loss of Balance” (2024) begins with such a board. A film that tackles what has been an environmental taboo for years. Something that was widely whispered about, but no one spoke out loud. Until the first brave voice appeared. And more followed. Thus, trickery, mobbing and crossing mental and physical boundaries supposedly in the name of art began to be discussed not only in the artistic community. And that’s a good thing, because there is no social consent for such behavior.
Bojanowskiwho is also the co-author of the script (to the company z Katarzyna Priwieziencew), addresses the problem of losing oneself in one’s role, the limits of sacrifice, pressure, and mental hygiene within a group of young people aspiring to the profession. Extremely plastic, the kind from which future actors are made. In the film, they prepare a diploma performance that could be a ticket to a further career. After all, who knows, maybe the director of the Nowy Theater will be sitting in the audience. And getting involved in a place like this is everyone’s dream.
A few weeks before the planned performance, the entire world of young acting students turns upside down. Everything is changing. Starting with the diploma supervisor, who is both charismatic and controversial Jacek (very good Tomasz Schuchardt), to the play to be performed. I replace the “boring”, predictable “Antigone” with “Macbeth”. And in fact, it’s hard to imagine a better material for exploring the dark side of human nature than Shakespeare.
And the darkness comes out very quickly in this story. Starting from making casting decisions related to the performance to the unusual (?) methods used by the director to bring out deeper emotions from the young people. Bojanowski puts Maja in the center. A girl, frustrated by successive unsuccessful castings, who works in a bar in the evenings and is on the verge of giving up acting in favor of a more stable life, which will be provided by her studies in marketing and management. In a confrontation, playing this role, great, by the way, Nel Kaczmarek and Schuchardt, the drama of the film is largely built up. Subsequent clashes between them, mutual provoking, questioning of choices, and finally accusing each other, create the titular feeling of loss of balance. So this is a story about individuals, but also about a group.
Bojanowski illustrates in an interesting way the specificity of preparing for the acting profession. These are not studies from – to. A few lectures, exercises, and then free time. This is the time to which you must completely surrender, where there is no room for anything else. Absorbing literally every free moment. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the characters live in their own world and have exceptionally close relationships. Not only do they spend whole days together, but they also reveal all their emotions, even the most intimate ones, and get to know their weaknesses and complexes. And although it is not a place free from competition, what stands out is a peculiar bond (because it is difficult for an outsider to judge whether it is positive or sometimes toxic) bond.
This is an important element of the plot of “Loss of Balance”, although – in my opinion – quite uneven. Next to the expressive Kuba, whose character he plays Mikołaj Matczakthe rest of the characters are dangerously close to stereotypes. This element could have been worked on a bit more at the script stage. Because although it is clear that this is the second plan, which should not obscure the confrontation between Maja and Jacek, I am a bit lacking in more nuance and better recognition of these characters for the viewer. But in the end, it’s just a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey, because “Loss of Balance” is an important and, above all, a good and moving film.
7/10
“Loss of balance”dir. Korek Bojanowski, Poland 2024.