Archive of films Scratch / Rysa

Poland
2008, 89 min

Section: East of the West - Competition
Year: 2009

In his intimate psychological drama Scratch, director Michał Rosa tackles a delicate theme from the recent past. An aging couple’s long-term relationship begins to fall apart when the wife discovers that her husband probably worked for the secret police and informed on her father. The female lead is masterfully played by Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak.

Synopsis

Joanna and Jan have been together for many years, but their tranquil marriage is put to the test when Joanna discovers that her husband may have been collaborating with the secret police during the former regime and even informing on Joanna’s father, a famous pre-war politician. A tenacious biologist and university professor, Joanna is determined to find out just who her husband really is, a man she has lived happily with for thirty years. A shadow of doubt has been cast over their years of co-existence, gradually scratching away at their relationship. The story unfolds over the space of one year and is set in contemporary Cracow. Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak excels in this intimate psychological drama and, for her masterful performance as the central character, she won Poland’s Eagle Award for Best Actress.

About the director

Michał Rosa (b. 1963, Zabrze, Poland) studied architecture and then film direction at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he has also been lecturing since the mid-1990s. For his film Military Games (Gry i zabawy wojskowe, 1991) he was nominated for a student Oscar. The film Hot Thursday (Gorący czwartek, 1994) was awarded Best Debut in 1993 at the festival in Gdynia. He received a number of domestic awards in 1997 for his feature Paint (Farba, 1997). The film Silence (Cisza, 2001) was screened in competition at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2002, where it won the Ecumenical Jury Award. His next film, What the Sun Has Seen (Co słonko widziało, 2005), won several awards at the Gdynia festival. His most recent work, Scratch was screened in the parallel section Giornate degli autori at the Venice IFF 2008.

Contacts

m-appeal world sales UG
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Tel: +49 306 150 7505, +491 729 570 051
E-mail: [email protected]
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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	East of the West - Competition

Director:	Michał Rosa
Screenplay:	Michał Rosa
Dir. of Photography:	Marcin Koszałka
Music:	Stanisław Radwan
Editor:	Krzysztof Szpetmański
Producer:	Henryk Romanowski, Dariusz Sidor
Production:	Filmcontract, TVP SA, Documentary and Feature Film Studio – WFDiF
Cast:	Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Krzysztof Stroiński, Ewa Telega, Mirosława Marcheluk, Teresa Marczewska, Ryszard Filipski, Stanisław Radwan, Jerzy Schejbal
Contact:	m-appeal world sales UG

Guests

Laura Inoka

Anne Wiedlack

Marcin Koszałka

Director of Photography, Film Director