- “Simona Kossak” is the latest film by Adrian Panek, the creator “Dass” and awarded for directing at the FPFF in Gdynia “Werewolf”
- The film premiered at the 24th mBank New Horizons IFF in Wrocław.
- “Simona Kossak” is among 16 films that will compete for the Golden Lions during the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in September 2024
I’m leaving aside the fatigue of this genre. Once again we get a slice of life combined with retromania, a picture stuffed with witty dialogues and musical hits from a few decades ago, played in a concert style, and in the realization layer meticulously recreating the times of the action. What’s the point if the foundations, i.e. the script, grind.
The plot focuses on the early career of Simona Kossak (Sandra Drzymalska). Unlike her ancestors, the girl does not pursue painting. Instead, she chooses zoology. After obtaining a master’s degree, wanting to escape from a toxic relationship with her mother (Agata Kulesza) and sister (Marianna Zydek), decides to go to the Białowieża Forest to conduct research there. There, she sets herself the goal of protecting the roe deer and deer. She is supported by photographer Lech Wilczek (Jakub Gierszał) – first her forced roommate, and later also her partner.
The script of “Simona Kossak” is full of funny dialogues and sarcasm between the characters, which the actors deliver with a masterful sense of comedy. Agata Kulesza, who serves up quips with a straight face, should get the lead role in some screwball comedy or an absurd story from “Naked Gun”. She is echoed by Sandra Drzymalska, whose Simona is marked on the one hand by passion and love for nature, and on the other by youthful rebellion.
The scenes between the actresses are among the best in the film. Both get more out of them than it would seem possible. Unfortunately, Zydek, who is on screen in several scenes, does not get such an opportunity. It is a pity that she was given such an ungrateful, one-dimensional character. The complicated and difficult relationship of the sisters does not resonate at all on the screen.
The plot is full of interesting themes – opposition to power and patriarchy, finding peace away from people and family in nature. However, none of them is developed in a satisfactory way. In addition, the script is striking inconsistency. In one of the first scenes, Simona experiences sexual initiation. It quickly turns out that her partner’s behavior was not dictated by sincere feelings, but by a sick bet with her sister. From the dialogues, we learn that the protagonist has always kept boys at a distance. All the more so, the harm she suffered from the person she finally opened up to should affect her relationships with other characters, primarily male ones, and her love life. Is this happening? Absolutely not. Wilczek appears, and Kossak is in love with him two scenes later.
Besides, at that moment, other script problems make themselves known. The photographer shows up at Simona’s forest cottage late at night, sincerely frightening his future roommate. They both scream, and then in disbelief decide that they will have to share a house… and cut. We skip ahead a dozen or so hours, when everything is already nice and cool between them. It’s a shame that the hardships of this new relationship were abandoned. Later, it is devoid of interesting dynamics. Wilczek nicely mansplains everything to the emotional Kossak, and even when betrayal occurs, it is easily forgiven after a few moments of sulking.
“Simona Kossak” suffers from the problem of many other film biographies, not only Polish ones. Namely, without knowledge outside the film, some of the plots are not fully understandable or do not have the appropriate weight. A good example is “Priscilla” Sofia Coppola’s Elvis Presley is addicted to instructions from Colonel Tom Parker – but who is he and what is his relationship with the singer? If not for the earlier film Luhrmann DatabaseI wouldn’t have a clue. In “Simon…” it primarily concerns the moment of destroying the wall in the forest hut, dividing the heroine’s part from Wilczek’s. This gesture is devoid of an appropriate foundation in Panek.
The biologist’s biography also repeats another constant mistake of productions about famous people. In “Because There’s Sex in Me” Kalina Jędrusik avoided being fired not because of her actions, but because of a sudden decision of a man higher in rank than her antagonist. This is also the case in “Simon Kossak”. Here, too, the heroine manages to achieve her goal, in a sense, at the scriptwriter’s request.
And then it turns out that none of this matters. In the finale, we don’t really know what this film was supposed to be about. Because in the funny dialogues, romances, retromania (by the way, the songs are terribly chosen here and they break the rhythm of the story) the heroine dies. After watching the production about Simon Kossak, I don’t know why she was an exceptional figure for Polish science. And this is probably the biggest flaw of Panek’s film.
5/10
“Simona Kossak”dir. Adrian Panek, Poland 2024, distribution: Next Film, cinema premiere: November 15, 2024