ZJEDNOCZONE STANY MILOSCI/ UNITED STATES OF LOVE

Poland, 2016, 104 minutes, Colour.
Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak, Marta Nieradkiewicz.
Directed by Tomasz Wasilewski.

We are not certain what the exact translation of the Polish title would be and the English title looks more than a little suspicious because of the overtones of United States. After viewing the film, the word in the English title that should raise suspicions is that of “Love ”. a more accurate title of the film could be “The Disparate Conditions of Lust”.

This is a story from the early 1990s, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the transition in Poland from Communist government and ideology to a close link with the West and western section of the culture. In fact, in this particular part of Poland the people look rather drab but are eager to move to the United States of non-drabness.

In one way, the screenplay is cleverly written, focusing on three women and how they deal with these changing situations, especially in terms of relationships and sexuality. It can be noted that many VHS films are becoming more and more available in Poland at the time, especially black market pornography videos, which many are eager to copy and look at.

The way that the screenplay is strangely written is that it focuses on three women who are in some ways connected but actually ends their stories without completing them, leaving it to the audience to wonder and speculate about what would happen.

This is particularly the case with the first woman, Agata, married with a daughter, her husband working in a factory, the daughter at school, and she herself involved in selling and hiring out the videos. Her husband loves her. There is quite an amount of churchgoing, to mass, to funerals, listening to sermons, with the possibility for confession, and the blessing of houses. While there are two older priests, there is a handsome young priest and Agata is obsessed with him, listening to his sermons extolling the glories of love (which he also does with a group of schoolchildren in the classroom), but is so disturbed by his presence in the house that she cannot stay while he is doing the blessing of the house and, then, going to the priest’s house, spying on him as he goes naked to have a shower. For those feeling a bit prurient and wondering what is going to happen, the answer is nothing, except that Agata going back to her husband and a vigorously surprising sexual encounter.

The second story is that of the school Principal, very well dressed, authoritative at school, having some dignity in the town. But, in this United States of Love, she is having an affair with a widower who has a teenage daughter. When he finds her clinging, he ends the affair and acts brutally towards her which devastates her and she behaves recklessly with a young man at the railway station – who tells her that she failed her when he was at school and she was the Principal.

The third story is of an older teacher, who loves teaching literature but who has to resign, being asked by the Principal - and living in an apartment block where the others live. She admires the Principal’s younger sister whose husband has been in Germany for several years earning money to send back to Poland. This younger woman runs aerobics classes as well as swimming pool exercise sessions for older women. The teacher wants to become part of the group, pushes her way to the attention of the instructor, invites her to dinner happily, then contrives an accident on the apartment block staircase to elicit more sympathy from the young woman (who is having her own difficulties of loneliness and wants to capitalise on her once-reputation of being a beauty Queen by having a photo shoot – but is used by an unscrupulous photographer). The old lady has some satisfaction in helping the young woman.

Rather drab lives in a rather drab Poland in brief sketches of about 40 minutes each, effective but certainly open-ended.

1. The title? More like “disparate conditions of lust”?

2. Polish setting, 1990, the re-creation of the period, the look? Talk of the Berlin Wall, united Germany?

3. The structure: the three women as focus?

4. The opening dinner, the single take, the people around the table, the talk, indication of themes, marriages, the husband in West Germany?

5. The initial focus on Agata, her husband, their love, the sexual encounters, his job at the factory, the teenage daughter? The pornographic video? Making copies? Her renting videos? The customers? Going to the church, the focus on the priest, the blessing of the house and her being upset? Seeing him going to the shower? His sermon on no limits of love? Infatuation, lust? Her daughter, at school, the different moods, the holiday in Czechoslovakia? The tensions between husband and wife? Her later anger? Agata staying, going to the aerobics class, the discussions with the Principal? Objectifying the priest, coming home, the sex with her husband? Her future?

6. The Principal, her manner, age, years at the school, dealings with the staff, the students, Solidarity Day? At the initial dinner? Well-dressed? The encounter with the widower, his going to the grave, care for his daughter, renting the video, the affair, the sexual encounter, his leaving, his lies about going, the Principal putting the photo in Wiola’s bag, his coming to the door, punching her, threatening to kill her? The Principal and Wiola in the car, running on the ice, falling through, seeing her in class? Real or not? The encounter with the young man, his story of her failing him at school, the sexual encounter? The discussions with the old teacher, her retirement? What future?

7. The old lady, her enthusiasm in class, love poetry? Her place in the building, seeing her around? The return home, sad, accepting the reality of retirement? Sitting at home, the number of birds? Going to reception appointment and her being snubbed? Going into the water aerobics, the old ladies, the shower, their bodies, her pretending to slip, setting up the scene, the young woman helping, inviting her to the meal – and the birds? The needs, the story of her sister? The wedding dance rehearsal, waltzing with the young woman? Inviting her to the meal, stood up, accusing her of being a whore, discovering the truth, washing her, lying naked on her bed, happy?

8. The row picks, Aerobics, the young woman, the Principal’s sister, her husband absent for many years, his sending videos of him? Alone, lonely, wondering about him? His sister, the aerobics, the old ladies swimming, the wedding rehearsal, responding to the old lady, the meal? Her past, wanting to be a model, the photography session, the photographer, the sex with her, her lying unconscious, the teacher washing her?

9. The men, the husband and his love for his, puzzled by her? The widower, the affair and his violence? The lust of the photographer?

10. The priests, the religious tone of Poland in 1990, the ceremony of the blessing of the house, people going to Mass, the chapel, the priest hearing confessions, the older priest and his sermons, funerals? The young priest, his sermon about love, his talk to the young class about the same theme? His being objectified by Agata? Nothing to indicate the future?

11. Religion and change, sex and pornography, the change in work, the opening up of Poland in the 1990s after repression?