This film was actually a truly big player at awards ceremonies all over the planet. It won honors in Germany, Spain, England, North America and Poland of course. At the Polish Film Awards it won Best Film, Actress (which actually went to the main character's aunt) and Director while scoring a few more nominations. Probably, as a result of that, it is also the Polish submission for the Foreign Language category at next year's Academy Awards. We will see how far it gets there.
We follow the paths of a young woman a few days before her vow, i.e. before becoming a nun. She's stuck between her faith and between temptation that lurks around the corner. And as if that wasn't enough already, she also finds out she is Jewish. As a consequence, she meets her Jewish aunt (a renowned judge before she retired) and the two make a road trip in order to find information about the main character's deceased parents. She meets a musician that she finds very attractive and the aunt isn't too uninterested in men either, gently speaking.
For Agata Trzebuchowska it is the very first role and she starts to prove that there is some acting talent behind that beautiful face. The director is Pawel Pawlikowski and this is only his second project roughly 10 years after the well-known "Summer of Love". After working with Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Paddy Considine and Emily Blunt, he is back to local productions in Poland.
However, I cannot say that i enjoyed this film a lot. It's all too bleak and uninteresting for my taste. None of the characters have you really feel with them and you don't hate them either. You just don't get involved really, which is the one of worst things that can happen. I usually like black-and-white films, but even with being considerably shorter than 90 minutes this film started to drag on several occasions. The ending is open. we see the main character walk away and it is unclear if she chooses the path of celibacy or away from the monastery. The aunt's death scene felt really awkward to me as she did not seem to be somebody who would commit suicide at all. It just did not fit in my opinion. Unfortunately there is too many criticisms which let me come to the final verdict that I would not recommend watching this movie. Still I'm curious if it gets the Academy Award nomination next year and if it possibly has the chance to win. For me it has not.
We follow the paths of a young woman a few days before her vow, i.e. before becoming a nun. She's stuck between her faith and between temptation that lurks around the corner. And as if that wasn't enough already, she also finds out she is Jewish. As a consequence, she meets her Jewish aunt (a renowned judge before she retired) and the two make a road trip in order to find information about the main character's deceased parents. She meets a musician that she finds very attractive and the aunt isn't too uninterested in men either, gently speaking.
For Agata Trzebuchowska it is the very first role and she starts to prove that there is some acting talent behind that beautiful face. The director is Pawel Pawlikowski and this is only his second project roughly 10 years after the well-known "Summer of Love". After working with Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Paddy Considine and Emily Blunt, he is back to local productions in Poland.
However, I cannot say that i enjoyed this film a lot. It's all too bleak and uninteresting for my taste. None of the characters have you really feel with them and you don't hate them either. You just don't get involved really, which is the one of worst things that can happen. I usually like black-and-white films, but even with being considerably shorter than 90 minutes this film started to drag on several occasions. The ending is open. we see the main character walk away and it is unclear if she chooses the path of celibacy or away from the monastery. The aunt's death scene felt really awkward to me as she did not seem to be somebody who would commit suicide at all. It just did not fit in my opinion. Unfortunately there is too many criticisms which let me come to the final verdict that I would not recommend watching this movie. Still I'm curious if it gets the Academy Award nomination next year and if it possibly has the chance to win. For me it has not.