Poland had its women’s hit long before “Sex in the Big City” or “Ready for Everything”

The text was first published in 2021 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the series “Mothers, wives and lovers”. We would like to remind you on the next jubilee.

“I always wanted to make a series about strong women who sometimes think better than men. Television asked me to make a contemporary series” – recalled Juliusz Machulski when asked how it happened that he made “Mothers, Wives and Lovers”. In fact, the director, with his own humor, showed four very different and at the same time interesting heroines long before “Sex in the Big City” or “Ready for Everything” was written abroad.

“Mothers, Wives and Lovers” or the Polish precursor of “Sex and the City”

“Mothers, Wives and Lovers” was a phenomenon in the 90s – it was not just that a drama series was made by a recognized film director. And he did it so effectively that the first twelve episodes were watched by about 15 million viewers – therefore TVP ordered ten more episodes. Film critics were not thrilled, but they were not the ones who made the production successful. As early as 1996, “Przekrój” wrote that when the next episode began on Sunday at 8 p.m., TVP gathered 60 percent in front of the screens. the entire audience.

Machulski made something groundbreaking, because it was a wise and funny series about women and for women, at a time when hardly anyone did such things. In addition, a whole galaxy of actors played there, who for the next years were among the casts of the most famous Polish productions.

Today it can be said that TVP and Zebra Film Studio did what the largest streaming services do on “Mothers, Wives and Lovers”. The best professionals available at the time were hired to create an engaging drama series. The script for “Mothers” was based on an idea by Wojciech Jędrkiewicz, and Machulski wrote it in one team with his regular collaborator Ryszard Zatorski, with whom he had previously worked on “Vabank”, “Sexmission” and “Deja Vu”. Paweł Trzaska and Zdena Sisova wrote together with them, who later wrote scripts for “Foster Family” and “Colors of Happiness”.

The music for the series was written by Krzesimir Dębski, and Witold Adamek was responsible for the cinematography (he was responsible for the cinematography for such classic productions as “Polish roads”, “Jan Heart”, “Mother of Kings”, “The Twenties … the Thirties”, “CK Deserters “,” A Short Film About Love “and” Decalogue VI “by Krzysztof Kieślowski or” List of Adolescents “by Jerzy Sthur) and awarded with Golden Lions for his cinematography in the film” Diabły, devły “Zdzisław Najda, who previously shot” Vabank II “with Machulski, and Wojciech Jerzy Hasem “The extraordinary journey of Baltazar Kober”.

The story of life was also important. The starting point for the whole story was a class meeting of four graduates of the Faculty of Nursing of the Medical Secondary School – because only three show up, they decide to visit the one who stayed at home together, which gives rise to an avalanche of events.

As we have already mentioned, each of the protagonists has a completely different character and faces different life challenges. Let’s start with the fact that only one of them, played by Małgorzata Potocka Wanda, works in a trained profession and is actually a nurse, and it seems that she is fulfilling the role of Janek’s faithful wife (Paweł Wawrzecki), but it turns out that that her spouse is cheating on her with Teresa working in the emergency – played by Małgorzata Formeniak.

In turn, played by Gabriela Kownacka, Dorota, instead of taking care of patients, successfully opens her own cosmetics company, so she is an independent businesswoman who, apart from her resolute daughter Klara (young Anna Mucha), has a husband (Krzysztof Stroiński) and a lover – an artist sculptor played by Jan Nowicki. Hanka, played by Elżbieta Zającówna, is the most hit. When we meet her, she runs her own dentist’s office, divorces Robert (Krzysztof Kiersznowski) and dates the much younger Filip (Grzegorz Łukawski).

Wiktoria, played by Anna Romantowska, is the only one who does not appear at the meeting – she works in a community center near Warsaw, has still not married and is looking for love, and is raising her son Jurek, played by young Mateusz Damięcki, alone.

“There is no need to spare on fillings, cosmetics and glasses.” For these quotes, viewers loved the series

There were four main characters, but the plot complexities and interesting characters, played by really famous actors today, really a lot. Jan Machulski played the father of the series Dorota, thanks to which he and his granddaughter Klara (i.e. young Anna Mucha) had many wonderful dialogues with each other. For example, when a grandfather asks a girl if he has any fiance, the beautiful answer is “I’m a vegetarian”.

Let us add at once that the young Klara had really great entrances: “A representative of the intellectual elite on the threshold of the 21st century cannot fail to follow the current cultural production”, “Opinions of Polish film critics are so far beyond the tastes of an intelligent viewer that it cannot be any the criterion of choice “or” You do not spare on fillings, cosmetics and glasses “.

The scriptwriters did not regret the sharp language of the character played by Mateusz Damięcki. His Jurek was able to say about Gniezno “If it was once the capital of Poland, it would have to be a very long time ago”, to summarize the visit of the heroine played by Grażyna Wolszczak, “I like it when Elżbieta comes, because then something changes in our life”, or to reproach “Well after all, not Diana with Karol! “, when his mother’s beloved Jerzy asked if Wiktoria divorced Caesar. Importantly, this beloved was played by Jan Englert so that a new generation of Polish women fell in love with him. Following this path, let’s add that Jerzy’s friend was played by Artur Żmijewski, and his wife was played by Maria Gładkowska, while his mistress and secretary were portrayed by Ewa Gawryluk.

‘Mothers, Wives and Mistresses’ photo: Przekrój, issue 2654 (May 5, 1996), pages 14-15, archive

Tomasz Stockinger, Małgorzata Kożuchowska, Leon Niemczyk, Jan Wieczorkowski, Maciej Kozłowski, Teresa Lipowska and Cezary Żak also appeared on the set. There were also guest appearances: Tomasz Raczek, Szymon Majewski (he even got the line: “My name is Szymon Majewski and I tell you that I’m good”), Paweł Kukiz. Machulski also winked at the viewers when he himself appeared on the screen as “director Julek”.

“Mothers, Wives and Mistresses”: a chronicle of the political transformation

Viewers saw the first episode on February 18, 1996. Years after the premiere, the production is viewed with even greater fascination, because it is a true chronicle of the era of political transformation and its greatest aspirations. You can see them in nightmarish costumes “from the era”, more or less sleek interiors or new ideas for businesses of various heroines and heroes.

Dorota’s daughter does not go to ordinary sports classes, she learned to play tennis (Artur Żmijewski also played tennis), and Spanish. Dorota herself, as a successful business woman, gives her friends expensive gifts: this is a branded iron, and a toaster styled in the 1960s. Her husband, Paweł, after watching “Forrest Gump” in the cinema, decides to open a chain of pizzerias – business does not burn out and the whole family has to deal with bankruptcy. Wiktoria, in turn, does not want to work in a luxury clothing wholesaler, but later finds a job on TV.

The viewers loved the series, so several times there were ideas to continue the series after many years – the media was happy to write about it. Unfortunately, it was impossible to resume “Mothers” when Gabriel Kownacka, who played one of the main roles, died of cancer in 2010. The actress also had no doubts that the production was special. It was from this title that her adventure with series began. She mentioned on the site “:

“Mothers, Wives and Lovers” was my first series and a completely new task. I took this role because of Juliusz Machulski. His name guaranteed that the production would be watched. And it actually happened. Participation in this series was a lifetime adventure.

Mateusz Damięcki also has warm memories related to the series. Not only did he gain fame thanks to him, his role saved him several times from a fight. “There were various strange situations and suddenly I heard: you, leave him, he played in ‘Mothers, Wives and Lovers’ – he said. And let’s add that the series can still be watched on the website