A film from the turn of history. Exaggeration? Not necessarily. It was made at the turn of the worlds: after the pandemic, after graduation, a few years later. Created through the titanic efforts of the film crew who believed in the project until the end. Charged with a strong energy field of the filmmakers from all faculties of the Lodz Film School. It is a cinematic reflection of the artistry of the actors who left the walls of their Alma Mater in (difficult) 2020.

It is the SIXTH diploma film of the Acting Department students in the history of the School!

The diploma film of the Acting Department students is a precedent on a global scale. In addition to the theatre diploma play, they have a chance to star in a full-length feature film, which ultimately shows their acting skills. Its originator and artistic supervisor was Prof. Mariusz Grzegorzek, double-term Rector of the Film School. Each diploma film has had a defined outline and budget leaving a lot of room for creativity at the same time.

The first diploma film was "The Singing Napkin" directed by Mariusz Grzegorzek, then every year: "Crystal Girl" by Artur Urbański, "Soyer" by Łukasz Barczyk, "Monument" by Jagoda Szelc, and recently "Nothing Is Lost" by Kalina Alabrudzińska.

DIFFERENT PATHS TO HOLINESS, dir. Aniela Gabryel, is recorded as another diploma film of the Acting Department in the pages of history. The premiere will take place at the 42nd Koszalin Festival of Film Debuts YOUTH AND FILM, where our film takes part in the feature-length film competition.

Yes! It is also the full-length feature debut of Aniela Astrid Gabryel, our graduate of Film and TV Directing Department, author of the documentary RADICAL MOVE recently awarded at the 63rd KFF.

Youth and Film Festival programme: mlodziifilm.pl/konkursThe screening in Koszalin:16th June, Kino Kryterium
3:30 PM

DIFFERENT PATHS TO HOLINESS
screenplay and direction: Aniela Astrid Gabryel
cinematography: Zuzanna Kernbach
editing: Katarzyna Drozdowicz,Natalia Jacheć
production management: Anna Balkiewicz, Eryk Siemianowicz
sound: Rafał Nowak
set design: Barbara Szymczak
music: Jakub Kurek
singing: Katarzyna Kapela K
costumes: Aleksandra Dłutowska
make-up: Natalia Wójcik
cast: Mikołaj Bartosiewicz, Jan Butruk, Julia Chatys, Sylwia Gajdemska, Antonina Jarnuszkiewicz, Hubert Kowalczys, Rafał Kowalski, Irmina Liszkowska, Dominik Mironiuk, Jan Napieralski, Wiktor Piechowski, Dorota Ptaszek, Julia Szczepańska, Dominika Walo, Michał Włodarczyk, Artur Ziółkowski, Viktoria Zmysłowska
as well as Paweł Smagała, Katarzyna Kapela, Andrzej Kłak, Dorota Kowalewska, Sambor Czarnota, Kamila Klamut, Artur Wower, Tomasz Rodowicz
artistic supervision: Mariusz Grzegorzek
poster designer: Marta Kacprzak
production: Lodz Film School

“Close your eyes and each look at your fears for yourself. They are all justifiable. Each fear is a person from another space. Every fear is a person who is missing something and wants to get somewhere.” Five paths on which the characters meet their greatest fears and obsessions. The body, religion, politics, eco-activism, shamanism and disagreement with sanctity as we know it.
 
The director, Aniela Astrid Gabryel, talks about her film.

A diploma film of acting students is a precedent-setting film on a global scale. Students of the Acting Department who are about to graduate, in addition to a theatre diploma play, have a chance to take part in a diploma film and act in front of the camera. How did the work on the screenplay come about?

Aniela: I was very happy to get a proposal for directing an acting students’ diploma film from Professor Mariusz Grzegorzek but I wondered if I would manage it time-wise. Then, I went to my partner's jazz concert in Warsaw and an idea for the film came to my mind like lightning, and I made up my mind. Watching people at the concert inspired me to write stories of several young people who yearn for spirituality in today's world. They look for it beyond religion and in very different ways. This is our generation thirstily looking for "more", to join various initiatives and groups. I was moved but at the same time, I felt like giggling because I think we're a little funny in this desire too. So it started with this epiphany, and then we moved on to accelerated work on the implementation of the idea. When we wrote these five stories, the questions immediately arose whether at the editing stage we would tell them in a linear way or intertwine them. The stories were created separately, but with the intention of interacting with each other.

How did you go about collaborating with the other filmmakers?

Aniela: Together with Zuzanna Kernbach, the cinematographer, and Barbara Szymczak, the set designer, we searched for cultural and visual clues to each of these stories together, in order to distinguish them, but at the same time, find a common element. Many of them were rooted in old traditions because each of these stories raises fundamental existential questions and each tells the story of a certain community.

You worked with a large crew and a group of actors of the graduation year who became the collective hero of the film. How did this translate into the film?

Aniela: We were interested in the theme of a group. There is a great longing for community in our generation. This search also coincided with my documentary RADICAL MOVE, which I also made with Zuza. It just had its festival premiere at the KFF. The topic of spirituality interests us, along with the need for common practice. Today, we are disillusioned with the church, and yet we need the sense of community. In the film, we showed several perspectives: the plane of the body (crossfit), the church theme in a completely different framework, eco-activism, political and social activities, hypnosis, shamanism.

We're talking about the screenplay, but you also had a strictly production task ahead of you - the making of an acting students’ diploma film. This is the sixth diploma of Lodz Film School acting students which is why this type of film has a certain tradition and history. What key did you choose to cast the students?

Aniela: My doubt at the beginning was due to the awareness that I had to cast many young actors in the roles and that everything had to take place in Łódź and in school conditions. Film has always interested me as a path of freedom, where the idea comes naturally, unforced, like a gift of rain. Here I had to bend a lot and adapt to the form of the diploma film. It was a limitation for me, but also a challenge. That's why I based the idea on the theme of the group - young people who feel pain, fear and try to do something about it, looking for a certain experience outside the body. In today's world, this path takes place in very different ways.There are certainly many more ways, but we have chosen these six ways through which young people pursue their search. In terms of production, it was a demanding and very difficult task. Unfortunately, not all the scenes, in the case of such a low-budget production, were properly realized. We had to give up some of them. Basia Szymczak came up with such a beautiful image - a big moon in a room, which is approached in a dream by one of the heroines, an eco-activist. I still miss this scene to this day. There was this collective desire felt by the crew members to tell these stories taking place in different places and different worlds. And we did it with dedication.

The film was made over several years.

Aniela: I feel like this film cost a lot in terms of energy. The production team, composed largely of Film School students, and all the creators were very involved in this project, sometimes beyond human strength. There were additional difficulties during the production of the film: I was pregnant on shoot, the pandemic broke out, I gave birth to my son, and we still had to shoot a few important scenes. Finally, thanks to the commitment of many dedicated people and the perseverance of the filmmakers, we managed to finish the project. Thanks to the dedication of Zuza Kernbach, Basia Szymczak and Agata Golańska, we managed to shoot documentary extra scenes we dreamed of in the open air close to nature with children and actors in Łódź. Agata Golańska supported us and I am very grateful to her for that, because these were more poetic and crazy ideas, but without them the film would not breathe. Then, we had to work on many levels - it took a long time to lead the emotional narrative in editing to make these stories work together. The editors, Natalia Jacheć and Katarzyna Drozdowicz, and I spent a lot of time trying to find the right way to tell the story. Conversations with Mariusz Grzegorzek proved to be inspiring and stimulated my imagination. It was a job full of emotions and impressions. We spent a lot of time with Rafał Nowak, the sound designer, on the sound layer. It plays an important role in the introduction to particular worlds. Sound work was correlated with work on music with musician and composer Jakub Kurek. Jakub collaborated with Rafał and they entered into a kind of creative dance over the music and sound layers of the film, which play a very important role - a sucker to the film world. We also spent a lot of time working on colour correction and special effects. Thanks to the perseverance and involvement of professionals, despite the limited budget, we managed to do some things as we wanted in colour correction and special effects. I wanted all this complex work to lead the viewer, at least for a moment, to feel a certain mystery, as Kołakowski wrote "a curtain", behind which we humans have been trying to look for centuries.

The film was actually made at the turn of the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic worlds, at the turning point in your life - before motherhood and after the birth of a child, but above all it was the time of change for the actors who made the film at the School and then left its walls. What was the experience like for them?

Aniela: You really have to ask the actors. What I can say about working on the film is that we worked very intensively. I used to stay up with them, even though I was already heavily pregnant. They approached all the work in a very creative way. We had a lot of talks and experimented during rehearsals. We all wanted the film to be released as soon as possible because the obstacles you mentioned slowed down the work on the film. A lot of time has passed and today we are different people than when we started our cooperation. I think it was an interesting process for all of us, the process of working on the film and working on ourselves. I look at this time positively.
We are all happy that the film will premiere and that we will meet in Koszalin.

We are also looking forward to the up-coming premiere!

ed. Małgorzata Lisiecka-Muniak