When I imagine a film, I can't help but probe the depths of time in the present. It may be a distant or recent past, but I am always fascinated by the possibility of capturing the supposedly vanished past in the present of the narrative, and the stronger the twist in which the characters in the film are caught, the greater the pleasure in filming them.
Roots
Born in Poland, I went into exile with my parents in France in the 1980s, where I studied philosophy and cinema (INSAS). After holding several positions in the film industry — from script supervisor to casting director to actress — I went on to direct documentaries ( KOR, School Revolution 1918–1939, Poland vs. History), some essays ( Quarzell dit Castel, All of me won't disappear) some fictions ( The wheel turns, I want something and I don't know what, Lone wolves in passive mode) qui ont été diffusés à la télévision, programmés et primés dans de nombreux festivals en France (Angers, Pantin, La Rochelle, Fid Marseille, Cinéma du Réel, rendez-vous de l’histoire de Blois, … ) et à l’étranger ( Planet doc review, Krakow film festival, La Cabina, Flight Genova, Molodist film festival, Munich film festival, …).
heritages
« K.O.R.» , « All of me won't disappear » et « Pologne Contre Histoire » are tributes to Poland, the country where I was born — my heritage. The two major political and cultural influences that shaped me — thanks to my parents’ political involvement in Poland and in exile — are the desire to tell the country’s alternative history, a part of its identity that has been silenced.
« K.O.R.», the workers’ self-defense movement created by the workers themselves and their friends through meetings and training in self-organization for Polish workers in the late 1970s, in the pure Marxist tradition inherited from their communist parents — the cornerstone of the fall of the regime in the East!
« All of me won't disappear», a film about a Polish-Ukrainian Jewish poet who was murdered in 1944. It was a deeply moving film for me, one that opened me up and revealed to me the powerful, wandering, tragic, and sensual feminine side of Poland, embodied in Zuzanna Ginczanka.
« Pologne Contre Histoire», the fight against denial waged in the name of democracy, and the living memory that some of our own have become in Poland to combat the erasure of the traumatic relations between Jews and Poles before, during, and after the war in Poland. A film about memory and the struggle to preserve it, one that breathes new life into history.
« KOR » was a joy to make — a film about a Poland that is feisty, clever, resilient, and joyful.
« All of me won't disappear » and « Poland versus history » are films that bring to life the “trauma” of the Jewish question in Poland, their fate marked by unspeakable violence, the legacy they left behind, and the creation of a culture born from the blind spot of violence, rooted in truth. These two films, so difficult to even conceive of, were a great source of cinematic inspiration and helped me to “tell” this story, to integrate it, and to live it in the present with full awareness. I also felt that I was doing my part—yes—in passing it on.
Today
In addition to my own films, I contribute to European arthouse cinema as a casting director, acting coach, actress, and editor.
I am currently developing my first feature-length fiction film — a European co-production — "Les Cerises au goût de ciel", as well as a feature-length documentary.