There’s a crisis at the border: migrants stranded in desperate conditions, steel and barbed wire barriers thrown in their path.
08.09.2023 - 12:45 / deadline.com
Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s transgender drama Women Of world premieres in Competition at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.
As ever the filmmaking team – who have been working together for more than two decades on titles such as Mug, In The Name Of and French-language drama Elles – are pushing boundaries in their native Poland.
Set against the backdrop of the country’s transition from communism to capitalism, Woman Of follows protagonist Aniela Wesoły across the course of 45 years as she seeks to live freely as a trans woman in a small provincial town.
The film charts Wesoly’s journey with her wife, as the couple navigate her transition in an environment where it is neither recognized nor accepted.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The first impulse was 20 years ago when Michal [who is also a cinematographer] filmed one of the first [transition] surgeries,” says Szumowska.
“But there was no transgender discussion at that time, it was like it completely didn’t exist,” she continues. “We came back to that story because of what’s going on right now in Poland and in the world, but especially in Poland.”
The country has the worst track record in Europe for respect of LGBTQ+ rights, according to a report by rights group ILGA-Europe in May.
Same-sex relationships have been legal in the country since 1932, but same-sex marriage and civil unions are not recognised, conversion therapy (which is banned in a growing number of European countries) is encouraged, and same-sex couples are not allowed to adopt.
In the spring of 2020, 100 municipalities across Poland declared themselves LGBT-free zones, in a move encouraged by the conservative ruling Law and Justice party (PiS)and local
There’s a crisis at the border: migrants stranded in desperate conditions, steel and barbed wire barriers thrown in their path.
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Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.
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Christopher Vourlias A decades-spanning portrait of a transgender Polish woman on a journey of self-discovery is at the heart of Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s “Woman Of,” the latest from the two-time Berlin Silver Bear winner (“Body,” “Mug”) and her longtime collaborator. The film premieres Sept. 8 in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
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