Komunia / Communion

Komunia / Communion. Ola Kaczanowska and her brother Nikodem Kaczanowski.

Director: Anna Zamecka
Country: Poland
Year: 2016
Duration: 1.12
Languages: Polish / subtitles in English
Category: Carte blanche à Pirjo Honkasalo, Documentary Films.
    Introduced by Pirjo Honkasalo, hosted by Juhana von Bagh.
    DCP viewed at Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), Kitisen Kino, Sodankylä, 14 June 2019.

Mia Öhman (MSFF): "Sometimes adults, for whatever reason, can’t do what they should, and children are left to fend for themselves. Anna Zamecka’s debut feature Communion (Komunia, 2016) has won awards at many prestigious festivals. It is an intimate documentary about a motherless family. Zamecka encountered the family’s multilingual father while shooting a school project, as Poland was hosting the European football championship games. The father introduced Zamecka to his then 12-year-old daughter Ola, the wonderful creature that, since her mother’s departure, has taken care of everything at home – including her brother Nikodem, two years her junior. In Ola, Zamecka recognized herself as a child and realized that by making a documentary about the family, she might be the adult who shows Ola that it isn’t a child’s job to take responsibility for everything."

"Making a film in a small flat had its challenges, but when the material, shot by Małgorzata Szyłak, had been assembled into a rudimentary cut, the experienced editor Agnieszka Glinska came onboard. The common thread running through the documentary is Ola preparing Nikodem for his First Communion, an important ritual in Catholic Poland. Nikodem’s autism isn’t mentioned, and his environment doesn’t acknowledge it in any way: he is simply the poorly behaved boy. But if everything works out and father finally renovates the bathroom, maybe the mother will return home." (MÖ / MSFF)

Internet Movie Database: "'Communion' reveals the beauty of the rejected, the strength of the weak and the need for change when change seems impossible. This crash course in growing up teaches us that no failure is final. Especially when love is in question."

"When adults are ineffectual, children have to grow up quickly. Ola is 14 and she takes care of her dysfunctional father, autistic brother and a mother who lives separately; but most of all she tries to reunite the family. She lives in the hope of bringing her mother back home. Her 13 year old brother Nikodem's Holy Communion is a pretext for the family to meet up. Ola is entirely responsible for preparing the perfect family celebration. "Communion" reveals the beauty of the rejected, the strength of the weak and the need for change when change seems impossible. This crash course in growing up teaches us that no failure is final. Especially when love is in question." (Internet Movie Database)

AA: Confession: I failed to register this screening properly. I was aware that in front of me was a distinguished movie, but the screening suffered from the circumstances in the hot summer afternoon. I stayed awake although there was a lack of ventilation in the Kitisen Kino tent, and not enough oxygen. A powerful masterpiece, The House Is Black, had just been seen in glorious photochemical black and white. In comparison, the visual quality of Komunia resembled a surveillance camera record in flat, nondescript digital.

I was a potentially ideal member of the audience, with special interest in how the life of a family is entirely transformed by the presence of an autistic child. Here the all-sacrificing protagonist is not the mother but the daughter who at age 12 is in charge of everything. Her burden is the main theme of Komunia.

As the title of the film reveals, this is a film about First Communion. [Remarkable films about First Communion include Max Ophuls's Le Plaisir, the Maison Tellier episode.] The suspense is based on the question whether the family will be together for the big event in the autistic Nikodem's life. His is a hard lot with school mainstreaming and hardship in religious education. Yet Nikodem himself has a sunny, life-affirming disposition. Playing with his dinosaur toy in the bathtub he remarks in passing that "reality becomes fiction".

To be revisited.


COMMUNION
Ohjaaja: Anna Zamecka
Maa: Puola
Vuosi: 2016
Kesto: 1.12
Kielet: puola / tekstitys englanniksi
Alkup. nimi: Komunia
Kategoria: Carte Blanche à Pirjo Honkasalo, Dokumenttielokuvat

Joskus käy niin, että aikuiset eivät syystä tai toisesta kykene siihen mihin heidän pitäisi, ja lapset jäävät selviytymään itsekseen. Anna Zameckan ensimmäinen elokuva Communion (Komunia, 2016) on palkittu monilla arvovaltaisilla festivaaleilla. Se on intiimi dokumentti äidittömästä perheestä. Zamecka törmäsi perheen monia kieliä puhuvaan isään kuvatessaan oppilastyötä, kun Puola isännöi jalkapallon EM-kisoja. Isä esitteli Zameckalle tuolloin 12-vuotiaan tyttärensä Olan, ihmeellisen olennon, joka äidin lähdettyä hoiti kaiken kotona – myös kaksi vuotta nuoremman Nikodem-veljen. Zamecka tunnisti Olassa itsensä lapsena, ja tajusi, että tekemällä perheestä dokumentin juuri hän voi olla se aikuinen, joka osoittaa Olalle, ettei lapsen tehtävä ole ottaa vastuuta kaikesta.

Elokuvan tekeminen pienessä asunnossa oli haasteellista, mutta kun Małgorzata Szyłakin kuvaama materiaali oli kasattu alustavaksi aihioksi, projektiin lähti mukaan kokenut leikkaaja Agnieszka Glinska. Dokumentin punaisena lankana Ola valmistaa Nikodemiä katolisessa Puolassa tärkeälle ensimmäiselle ehtoolliselle. Nikodemin autismia ei kertaakaan mainita, eikä ympäristö ota sitä mitenkään huomioon: hän on vain se huonosti käyttäytyvä poika. Mutta jos kaikki onnistuu, ja jos isä vihdoinkin remontoi kylpyhuoneen, äiti tulee ehkä takaisin kotiin. (MÖ)