“Woman Z…” may shock some people, but we need this shock [RECENZJA]

The latest work by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert had its official premiere at last year’s festival in Venice. “Kobieta Z…” even took part in the main competition, but it did not win the Golden Lion or a special award, like the competing “Zielona Granica” by Agnieszka Holland. It can even be safely said that the film remained in the shadow of the production about the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, against which the then government of the United Right and the media supporting it carried out a great campaign. Meanwhile, the first major Polish feature film with a transgender main character could also cause confusion. And I hope it will trigger, but in a positive way.

The main character’s experiences vary over the years. But her identity only gets stronger

In “Woman With…”, whose title suggests a reference to Andrzej Wajda’s films, we follow the story of Aniela Wesoły throughout almost her entire life. It also provides an extensive overview of Polish realities from the 1980s to the present day. We meet the heroine long before the transition process begins, or even the awareness of her transgender status. However, the very first scene, in which Aniela, as little Andrzej, takes part in his First Holy Communion, may make us think that we are dealing with a girl in a boy’s body. After the ceremony, the young communicant is having fun with his friends, and he steals a white veil from one of them, puts it on and runs away with it high up a tree so that no one can take it from him.

There are many more such scenes showing the heroine’s path to self-discovery and finding the courage to fight for her rights. They are strong, but in a very realistic way they illustrate the realities of life of transgender people in our country over several decades. Moreover, the film’s plot is set in a small-town reality, which, in my opinion, certainly makes it easier for people who do not know the situation of transgender people in Poland to understand the film. Aniela was born in a picturesque town located in the Kłodzko Valley region, where everyone knows each other and lives “God’s way”. However, the lives of the film’s characters are not as idyllic as the beautiful mountain scenery. The period of communism in the 1980s, the political transformation in the 1990s and Poland’s entry into the European Union in the 1900s were not easy for anyone.

These realities also influence the decisions the main character makes. During late communism, he does what everyone else does. He gets married and starts a family, while living in his parents’ house. The situation is different as our country opens up to the world and information from the West about transgenderism becomes more widely available. In one of the scenes from that period, on the posters of a local cinema we see a poster of “The Double Life of Weronika” by Krzysztof Kieślowski, which is an obvious reference to the then condition of the heroine, who is in the process of fighting with herself, standing at the crossroads. Still other opportunities opened up for Aniela in the 2000s, when organizations supporting the LGBT+ community became more and more visible. Even in the Lower Silesian provinces.

Meanwhile, the closer we get to the present day, the more complicated Aniela’s life becomes. The revolution from large cities rarely reaches smaller towns. Here, the situation for transgender people may be even more difficult. Aniela’s emancipation means that she is forced to leave her family home, and while fighting for her fate and rights, she is left to herself. The nuns, with whom the heroine found shelter over her head, show her mercy, but when, in a rather strange and unnecessary scene in the bathhouse of a pilgrim’s house, the truth about Angela’s transgenderism comes to light, they also turn away from their neighbors.

Over the following years, we see the heroine’s unequal fight against the system, and the drama of the situation is enhanced by another unnecessary – in my opinion – scene, or rather a plot, in which Aniela has to serve a sentence in prison for running illegal businesses in the second half of the 1900s. As they say: ” what too much is not healthy”. At this stage of the film, I was already full of extreme emotions, and the subsequent degradation of the heroine aroused slight frustration. But that didn’t make me leave the cinema with the impression that the creators had overdone it. The production, apart from showing various dilemmas of a transgender woman, coherently presents the difficult process of gender correction in our country. Both in formal, family and emotional terms.

In “Kobieta Z…” we also have an unusual love story. Aniela’s relationship will be put to a great test

The LGBT+ community was invited to work on the film, whose members also play episodic roles in the production. One of such people is Europe’s first transgender parliamentarian, Anna Grodzka, who takes part in the support group meeting. In addition, Anu Czerwiński, a distinguished filmmaker and theater actor, became the assistant director. The filmmakers decided to take such steps when they failed to find a trans-actress who could play Aniela and they did not want to entrust such a demanding role to naturalists. Because the main character is played by three cisgender people. These are: Franciszek Englert, Mateusz Więcławek and Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, whom we see on screen the longest. The actors and the environment must have become very close, because we don’t see anything on the screen that could raise doubts whether the actors really feel good in their roles.

The role of Joanna Kulig and the story of her heroine, who has accompanied Aniela from her early years, deserve a separate paragraph. Iza is a down-to-earth woman who doesn’t know for most of her life that her husband is a woman born in a man’s body. Over the years, they have had a good and happy relationship, but it lacks passion. The woman is also not bothered by her husband’s non-normativity, which manifests itself in his appearance or behavior. Everything changes when Aniela decides to reveal the truth, which is initially unthinkable for Iza. The heroine needs several years to change her attitude and use the strength of her character to show support. This thread, although secondary, also gives a lot to think about the concept of love.

Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik and Joanna Kulig in the film ‘The Woman from…’, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska Photo Łukasz Bąk / Next Film

All this put together constitutes an accessible and understandable picture of the life of transgender people in Poland. The directorial duo – Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert – in their film show the reality as it is and can cause confusion that will open the field for discussion on changes in the rights of transgender people. In recent years, everyone from the LGBT+ community has not had it easy, and politicians have still not started working on a law enabling people of the same sex to enter into a civil partnership. However, Poles’ awareness of transgender people is the lowest. Thanks to the fact that “Woman Z…” will also be played in multiplexes, the film has a chance to reach a larger number of viewers, which I hope will translate into greater understanding for people who simply want to live in harmony with themselves.