The first Polish documentary finished thanks to a crowdfunding campaign and awarded in Leipzig, Warsaw, Kiev, Creteil and Jihlava, will convince you that even burdensome topics can be - thanks to the directors’s sensitive approach, masterful cinematography and the music by the Oscar winning composer - made into a visually captivating film that will resonate within you for a long time.

Without any introductions or long explanations, the discreet camera takes us right inside the rural households of 36-year-old Joanna Salyga, who is reading a bed time story to little Janek and afterwards asks him what he would like her to write about him in her blog. Joanna has just found out that she has an untreatable illness. She thus decided to write down everything she considers important for her seven-year-old son and her loving husband Piotr. Here blog entries are, however, no dull contemplations about her tragic lot. It is more of a lively dialogue with her son trying to direct him towards understanding and awareness of the wonders of life.  „Be curious, try to understand yourself, think, why you have chosen such friends and not different ones, think about why they have chosen you…, what do you feel when you come late to school, when you eat your favourite pizza, when you cuddle a cat or when you just rest your head on the pillow?…are you satisfied within your world as it is, do you feel safe in it, are you happy?“ ..Sometimes she reads her notes to Janek and is interested in his feedback. Nevertheless Joanna’s blog is not the central topic of the documentary. 

Young Polish director Aneta Kopacz concentrates fully on capturing the seemingly trivial issues of a Polish family, which in the shadow of the upcoming death of the main character takes a much deeper dimension. The common lunch cooking or playing with a building kit accompanied by amusing dialogues eloquently point mainly to the very strong  bond between the mother and son. During the trip to the Polish lakes Janek says with a childish immediacy that he considers the time he spends with her „divine“. This time is unfortunately limited. The more the spectator admires the extraordinary courage of Joanna who almost does not vent any of the pains caused by her illness. She talks to her son in a matter-of-fact tone and from her maternal position she teaches him to enjoy and love everything that is beautiful about life. Sometimes not even words are necessary as we can see for example in the mushroom picking scenes, intimately shot and accompanied by the accurately dosed and very subtle tones of Kaczmarek’s music.

And it is the way of composition, which makes this thematically gloomy film an exhilarating experience with the potential to bite deep into the audiences‘ souls. The camera in the hands of experienced Łukasz Żal (awarded for Paparazzi), follows Joanna’s family with an extraordinary discretion even in the moments when it is very close to her. No for a single second has the audience a feeling that any of the protagonists is aware of the camera’s or crew’s presence. The authenticity is also strengthened by the director’s ability to sensitively balance the moments, when it is best to zoom out from the characters and keep distance through the window of their rural house and when to accent the expressions in their faces and instead of just recording the dialogues to let speak the portion of music by J.A.P. Kaczmarek. The subtle music line composed by this Academy Award winner (for the soundtrack to Finding Neverland) is luckily not overused. 

This entirely emotional film does not wring out the viewer’s emotions by „extortionately“ built up scenes. The filmmakers seem to be freely passing through the lives of the protagonists in their most difficult times and instead of literal explanations and descriptions  they honor the art of hint. The perceptive audience is thus emotionally interested unconsciously, resulting in even stronger effect.

Joanna