Interview: Director Agnieszka Holland Brings Light to ‘In Darkness’

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CHICAGO – One of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards is the Polish entry, “In Darkness.” The film is directed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, who had the same nomination honor in 1985 (”Angry Harvest”) and for Adapted Screenplay in 1992 (”Europa, Europa”).

Hailed as one of Poland’s most prominent contributors to their cinema history, Holland has had a career of filmmaking that has been provocative, and highly political. She was born in Warsaw right after World War II, and her Jewish grandparents were killed in the ghetto during that conflict. She made her first film in 1970, “Jesus Christ’s Sins,” while a student the Film and TV School of the Performing Arts in Prague, before embarking on a notable career in the Polish Film industry.

The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’
The Light Above: Milla Bankowicz (Krystyna) and Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold) for “In Darkness’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Her first major film was “Provincial Actors” (1978), which was an allegory for Poland’s tense political structure of the time. She emigrated to France in the early 1980s, just as martial law was declared in Poland. Her first Academy Award nomination was in 1985 for Best Foreign Language Film for “Angry Harvest.” Her best known film came six years later through the German film industry with “Europa, Europa” (1991), which garnered another Oscar nomination for her and became one of the most successful German films released in the U.S.

As a contemporary of the Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, Holland also was the collaborating writer for two of Kieslowski’s “Three Colors” trilogy, and continued to direct films including “Olivier, Olivier” (1992), “The Secret Garden” (1993), “Washington Square” (1997), “Julia Walking Home” (2001) and “Copying Beethoven” (2006). She also directed a notable episode of HBO’s “The Wire” in 2004, among other television credits.

“In Darkness” is a interesting entry in the cinematic narrative of World War II. It is based on a true story of Leopold Soha, who risked his own life to care for a group of Jewish refugees in the sewers of the town in Nazi-occupied Poland. Set mostly in that dank hell, Agnieszka Holland again creates a stark cinematic allegory for man’s inhumanity to man.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is a story of humanity during one of the darkest times of 20th Century. How strong did that aspect of humanity, in your opinion, effect the outcome of World War II?

Agnieszka Holland: Without humanity getting inside itself, it never would have happened. So the potential of the brutality and hate, it’s apparently an important part of our journey. The 20th Century showed us, in the most exemplary way, how far we could go. It’s never over, it could come back at any moment or any place.

HollywoodChicago.com: We are all ‘In Darkness’ when sitting in the womb, waiting to be born, and there were symbolic and overt elements of birth in your film. What statement about birth and rebirth is present in your film and how does it relate to all of us?

Holland: I didn’t do that in an elaborate way, we just did it. I tried not to be too symbolic, but real as possible, and let the symbolism come naturally out of the real events. Darkness and light, when you speak in terms of the question, it becomes very symbolic, as the men help those in the underground of the sewer, in the dark. They were the natural links between the underworld and the regular world of the light.

As far as birth, babies were terrible danger for people who were in hiding. It was more about the real events of the story. Very few survivors embellish that reality. Moral judgments change in situations like this, and it’s always interesting to me as to what is the most important part of the human being that remains the most unchanged. That is the mystery, and the main character carries that mystery, even though he’s not particularly moral. It was a seed of good that grew in him.

HollywoodChicago.com: As a film director and writer you have dealt with the themes and era of the Holocaust several times. Since your family was directly effected during that time, does the exploration of these stories create a personal catharsis for you, as you represent some redemption in the midst of the horror of the event?

Holland: I wouldn’t call it a catharsis and I don’t believe that the Holocaust has some big meaning or it teaches us something. I just feel the urge to actualize the questions surrounding it over and over again. Most of the movies and memoirs are about who survive, which was a fraction of those who didn’t. When you ask the survivors that can relate about the time deeply or philosophically, they tell us it was entirely senseless. It was an outburst of irrational hate and cruelty. What we should take from that is an awareness that humanity is able to go in this direction and we should try to stop it in time.

HollywoodChicago.com: You contributed to the screenplay in ‘Three Colors: Blue,’ the masterpiece that began one of the most important film series in cinema history. Was the conclusion to Julie’s circumstance predetermined as the collaborators were writing the script, or did it come about as the story developed?

Holland: In my friendship with Krzysztof Kieslowski, when we were fellow filmmakers, we were helping each other. At the time of the trilogy, he wanted to make our collaboration official. All the frames of the films were there, it was the stages that I was collaborating on.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you are an icon of the Polish film industry, what has been the most notable characteristic in the evolution of the industry from the time you were a student to the modern Poland, and the stories they tell now?

Agnieszka Holland in Chicago, November 4th, 2011
Agnieszka Holland in Chicago, November 4th, 2011
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Holland: The best time of the Polish cinema was under the Communist rule, there was the type of energy that you see now in the Iranian film industry, that kind of oppression somehow creates important subjects. It finds a way to express reality, without being openly political. The cinema language becomes much more complex and interesting. There is also interest from the outside audience, the films are like a letter coming from the oppressed country, and the outside world are touched and curious.

The fall of Communism was a big blow to the Polish film industry, especially economically. Everyone started to believe that the market economy was the best solution to all problems, but of course small and local films have little chance to make profits from the domestic market, unless it’s very cynically commercial. In 2006, we established the Polish Film Institute, to finance cinema on a regular basis. It was a start toward more ambitious and interesting projects, and I think it’s in good shape now.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, what can you tell us about the great Krzysztof Kieslowski that the rest of the world doesn’t know?

Holland: I cannot tell you that in one sentence. He could be incredibly funny and provocative. The vision of him as a very moral man, with deep philosophical statements, is only part of the man.

“In Darkness” continues its limited release in Chicago on February 17th. See local listings for theater and show times. Featuring Robert Wiecklewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader and Herbert Knaup. Adapted screenplay by David F. Sharmoon and directed by Agnieszka Holland. Rated “R”

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2012 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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