It’s been some time since Cold War’s boom and three Academy Award nominations, but breakout Polish star Joanna Kulig will soon be reunited with director Paweł Pawlikowski.
“I’ll sing in his next movie,” she says. In this highly anticipated drama starring Sandra Hüller, best known for “1949”, Pavlikowski depicts the lives of Thomas and Erika Mann in postwar Germany.
“This is our fourth collaboration. We are so proud that this film exists, especially during these difficult times after the pandemic and the strikes. The film industry is still fighting back.”
Kulig’s extensive work on the awards circuit and simultaneous motherhood of a boy increased her international profile, but she resisted pressure to pursue only American projects. The Turin Film Festival will screen Nora Jenicke’s psychological thriller “Isola.”
“Right after Cold War, things got a little weird. I think some people expected me to stay[in the United States]but one of the reasons I’ve always admired Paweł Pawlikowski is because he has his own very specific way of developing films. Instead of listening to all the outside voices, you have to find what works for you and what brings you peace and joy,” she points out.
“‘Cold War’ gave me multiculturalism and a lot of new opportunities. Without that movie, those probably wouldn’t have happened. But I also want to have a family life, and I think I have that balance now.”
Following her Berlinale opening production “She Came to Me” and the Apple TV+ miniseries “Masters of the Air,” she is focusing on European productions.
“They’re much closer. Thanks to ‘Izola’, we can now do a lot of things in Warsaw. I always wanted to have my own base, a permanent place, and now I’ve been able to create one. It’s funny because Polish people keep asking me, ‘Oh, you’re back?’ It never left! ” she laughed.
“We Poles are incredibly open to learning new languages and entering new working environments. In the back of our minds, there is still this idea that we are not good enough. It is a relic of the communist era. My generation believed that Western countries were somehow better, and now it is time for us to evaluate ourselves.”
Prior to Pawlikowski’s latest work, Kulig was also set to sing in a film directed by Jenicke, in which she plays the much younger wife of a dying man named Joanna. Trapped on an isolated island, she happily welcomes her new caretaker, Ada (Fanny Ardant), but Ada’s love quickly turns into obsession.
Jaenicke explains, “Originally, the film was going to be set in Stromboli, so this song was Sicilian. We needed a little moment of heart-to-heart connection between the two of them. No words needed, just looking at each other. The song really touched Ada’s heart, and we got to see the wild side of Joanna, who wanted to break free from just being a wife.”
“When I got to know Joanna[Krig]in a way her character was rewritten. She has an intense gaze and can seem very angelic at times, but then there’s a change. I also saw a little bit of the devil in her.”
‘Isola’ is produced by Manish Mandla, Ariens Damsi and Jaenikke for Drishyam Film International and Eliofilm.
Jaenicke, who is making her feature debut, also wanted to show Aldan from a different perspective. “We had never seen her in a role like this before. Fanny said she liked Ada because ‘she doesn’t like me.'”
Once again, there is no one to like about “Isola.” Co-star Marco Rossetti, who plays Joanna’s lover, said Janicke’s film has a noir feel, with all the characters inflicting emotional and physical violence on each other, and ultimately being united by “ambiguous moral values.”
“This is almost like a typical story,” the director summarizes.
“Ada comes into Joanna’s life when she’s already thinking about breaking out of her patterns. Joanna ends up meeting people who are always trying to control her. In a way, this is a feminist story. But then suddenly another woman is controlling her, almost like a man.”
