Let Joanna Win an Oscar! – Filmkommentaren.dk

I subscribe to the Realscreen trade magazine, which gives sometimes very valuable and reflective articles, among many others that line up who has left Discovery Channel and who comes, and who has bought the rights for that series etc.

The one I got today was very good, let me give you the annotation: “With the Oscars on the way for this Sunday, Emmy-winning director Pamela Mason Wagner discusses the subject matter of this year’s short documentary nominees, and asks where the line can, or should, be drawn when delving into difficult territory… And she does that in a very good way, read the whole article, click below. And she writes so well about my favourite (the only one nominated that I have seen to be honest but a masterpiece…):

“… In Joanna (directed by Aneta Kopacz) a young mother in Warsaw, with a terminal diagnosis, lives out her final months as purposefully and thoughtfully as she can. Her bright seven year-old son Jas appears in nearly every scene. Their relationship, full of intimate, tender rapport forms the heart of the movie.

Kopacz explained.. that she discovered Joanna through a blog, where Joanna was “describing her daily life full of those small and beautiful moments.” After convincing Joanna she wanted to depict not her cancer and her dying, but her living, Kopacz and her crew filmed the family for fifteen days over the course of four months. She described how they tried to remain as invisible as possible in order not to intrude on Joanna’s daily simple moments.

The film’s climax comes when Joanna and her husband Piotr tell Jas the end is near. Kopacz’ camera remains outside the house, shooting through the dining room window. The characters are not miced. Instead we hear birdsong, crickets and the natural sounds that accompany twilight. The scene is powerful, discreet, and emotionally satisfying, and vindicates the filmmaker’s choice to respect her subject’s privacy at this crucial moment.”

In October 2013 I watched the film and wrote to the producer: I watched the film – if you can put it like that – with pleasure and emotionally touched, to say the least, well what else can I say but BEAUTIFUL. As a film and as a hymn to Life and Love, whatever might happen.

Tue Steen Müller