You may wonder, why take the risk at all and make new “Sami” in 2024? The answer after watching “The Beginning” is obvious to me: because Andrzej Mularczyk’s script had been waiting for film adaptation for several dozen years, and it would have been impossible to film it in the Polish People’s Republic. The screenwriter, based on the memories of his uncle Jan, the village head of Boryczówka who was resettled to the Recovered Territories after the war, first created a radio play and then wrote film scripts from it. And this one, which focuses on the youth of Kargul and Pawlak, shows somewhere in the background, among others: the Bolsheviks plundered the village of Krużewniki in 1920, as the communists were not much better than the Nazis after the war. This definitely wouldn’t have made it on any screen under the previous regime.
What’s the point of filming new “Sami Sami”? This script was asking for it
“The Beginning” perfectly shows how infinitely important a good script is. In the film directed by Artur Żmijewski, you can clearly feel that the dialogues were written by the same creator as in the original trilogy, Andrzej Mularczyk. The atmosphere is absolutely perfect, and the visuals are downright magical.
I have the feeling that Artur Żmijewski has defused the bomb of expectations. As a director making his debut in a full-length feature, he created an extremely warm and captivating story about characters whom millions of Poles know very well. And this is a risky task – we are talking about a script related to film legends. After the premiere screening, I definitely don’t have a feeling of desecrated sanctity. This film is a bit like a warm blanket you wrap yourself in on a cold evening.
in one of the interviews he admitted that he was delighted with Mularczyk’s text and realized that the idea of making a new film was not so crazy. Because it’s not a reworking of the already known original, but the addition of a previously unknown chapter. In fact, the power in this scenario is great, I don’t think that anyone today could write such a story so well: with humor, distance, and yet also a subcutaneously disturbing realism. You’d really have to try really hard to mess it up.
“On our own. The beginning.” A film fairy tale whose ending we all already know
The most I could criticize is that the crew tried too hard and chose too nice an open-air museum for the location, that the costumes are, for example in the case of the female characters, too pretty, that the cinematographer took too idyllic photos, and the composer decorated the whole thing with too idyllic music. Due to all this, the atmosphere becomes fairy-tale-like – but in the stories of the displaced people, these home areas were considered to be a lost paradise. So this approach is most adequate in this respect. But these are all side issues, the heart of this film is the cast.
I have almost nothing but words of praise for the actors and actresses, because they put themselves in such a great mood. Everyone was perfectly prepared for the film in terms of language and with a borderland accent, they speak in a pleasant way. It’s a real pity that there wasn’t more room in the script, for example for Pawlak’s father, played charmingly by Zbigniew Zamachowski. Much could be drawn from Kargul senior, i.e. Janusz Chabior, and Mirosław Baka was brilliant in several scenes. Although I won’t say it, I think he reminded me too much of his Boryna from Painted Peasants. she is a bit like the godmother of the whole, she radiates her usual love and kindness, and nicely ties the cycle together with her presence alone. The scenes of Wojciech Malajkat as a priest are full of charm, also pay attention to Marek Włodarczyk and Mirosław Zbrojewicz.
I like that the script included expanding the participation of female characters with whom the main characters establish real relationships. The girls are not just an element of the background here, they do not linger in the background, they are quite active and have character, which is a nice change. I have a lot of sympathy for the performances of Paulina Gałązka and Weronika Humaj, who played Nechajka and Mania – the further into the film, the more it becomes clear that they make the most of what they have in the text. This does not change the fact that the biggest star of “The Beginning” is in fact Adam Bobik, the film’s Kazimierz Pawlak. Even if the text did not focus more on his story than Kargula, this actor would still blow up the screen with his charisma. The boy is full of energy, but he does not imitate Wacław Kowalski one iota and has his own way of conveying the qualities of a hero. When Kargul calls to the fence, you can feel a note of nostalgia (maybe this particular line was a bit overused), and when, drunk on vodka, he expresses his emotions in a characteristic way, it’s hard not to like him. The scenes when he practices diplomacy in crisis situations and talks to really dangerous people are disarming. A real masterpiece.
It is worth emphasizing that Bobik has a really nice chemistry with Karol Dziuba, the film’s Kargul. This one is more sedate, but you can see that the guys had a lot of fun, bantering even outside the set. They managed to develop the dynamics of an ambivalent relationship nicely – for them, it’s really just one step from hate to love. They are charming in their arguments, but when things get really heated and a real threat from outside comes, each of them rises to the occasion and saves the skin of the other, even though he is from an enemy tribe. “The Beginning” allows us to look at the relationship between Kargul and Pawlak a little differently, because now it is much clearer to me that their quarrels already in the Recovered Territories are some element of bringing order to their old world, that in an unknown, foreign place they are trying to somehow communicate. settle in.
Can “Alone Your Own: The Beginning” be watched separated from the original?
What’s more, it turned out by a complete accident that the person accompanying me at the screening didn’t know the original film trilogy (as it turns out, this is absolutely possible), so she watched “The Beginning” with completely fresh eyes and without any expectations of what was on the screen. should be happening. Her positive reaction confirmed my belief that the plot stands as a separate story. She received particular praise for Pawlak’s witty dialogues and sayings, which Adam Bobik delivered with fantastic eloquence. We also agree that the theme of Pawlak’s fascination with horses and his undying love for a horse named Pharaoh is also extremely endearing. This is my favorite thread.
It is not a film without flaws. Although the first half is pleasant and dynamic, in the second half the pace slows down. I feel like a few scenes could potentially be shortened to benefit the overall story. However, it is also difficult to forget that the realities that had to be described and shown at the end were simply terrible. Here we get a vision that is as softened as possible, which does not mean that it is devoid of sadness, regret and a sense of loss. However, the creators made sure to balance these unpleasantness somehow and not to kill the viewer with too harsh a clash with reality. As I have already mentioned, sometimes it may seem to some people that it is even too idyllic and charming, but the more I think about it all, the more it seems to me that it would be difficult to talk about it in any other way than in a fairy-tale style. It seems to be a fairy tale with a beginning, but it closes the cycle with an elegant ending. It was worth the wait.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
