“33 Scenes from Life is a film about losing childhood, about the end of a certain stage in life and about the fear that comes with that loss. What's most interesting is that our whole life consists of these époques… Each of us learns this truth at a different time of life and in a different manner.”
– Malgośka Szumowska
Continuing in the tradition of master filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski, this new Polish feature explores a set of sophisticated human relationships by following a cast of characters who communicate and mature through suffering and hope. Malgośka Szumowska is one of the rising stars of Polish cinema. Her new feature, loosely based on some of her own life experiences, explores what happens when a woman's world collapses around her, forcing her to completely re-evaluate the way she sees herself.
Julia has the perfect life: a loving husband, a beautiful home and a successful career as a photographer. In one year, that will all change. At first, her dog dies, then her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer and her career hits a crisis point. At a time when she most needs support, her husband, a famous composer who travels abroad, is increasingly unavailable, her elder sister, who is caught up in an affair with a priest, is of little help, and her father is becoming more and more needy.
The proximity of sickness and death force Julia into a new kind of adulthood. She must now assume total responsibility for herself, her parents and their deaths, and she begins to explore a new way to live. Laughter finds her in the strangest places, and an unexpected affair brings some measure of reprieve. Out of chaos, she summons strength and a more peaceful acceptance of the inevitability of pain.
Driven by an astonishing collection of resilient characters, Szumowska's poetic view of the world's innate disorder seems to be saying that though we are all bound for some unhappiness, the certainty of this reality, combined with the transient nature of suffering, unites us as human beings.
Dimitri Eipides
Malgośka Szumowska was born in Kraków, Poland, and studied film direction at the Polish National Film School in Łódź. Her short films Silence (98) and The Ascension (00) were highly lauded at international film festivals. She has since directed Happy Man (00), which played at the Festival, Stranger (05), the short documentary Nothing to Be Scared Of (07) and 33 Scenes from Life (08).