TATARAK (SWEET RUSH)

Poland, 2009, 85 minutes, Colour.
Krystyna Janda, Pawel Szagda, Jan Englert, Julia Pietrucha.
Directed by Andrzej Wajda.

Veteran Polish director, Andrej Wajda, has made many films since the 1950s, is now in his 80s. His vision is a touch melancholic, focused on illness and death, but his directorial skill is still very much alive.

This brief film has two stories in one. Adapting a short story by Krystina Janda about her cinematographer husband's terminal cancer and death, he has Janda herself present this memoir in a dramatic monologue. It is intercut into the film within the film, based on quite a different short story, in which she is playing the role of a middle-aged woman, a doctor's wife in a small town, who is charmed by a young man.

The title of the film in English is 'Sweet Rush'. It could be interpreted as the sweet rush of infatuated love the woman feels. However, it is the name of a water reed whose stems are used as decoration at the beginning of summer, at Pentecost, because of its distinctive odour.

As well, there is a 'realistic' scene as the actress becomes upset during the filming of a sequence where the young man is swimming with a bunch of sweet rush and gets into difficulties. The actress flees the location as the town now teems with rain.

Wajda has his character contemplate illness, time passing and death and the film, though brief and well-acted by Krystina Janda, is often moving.

1.Wajda, his career, over half a century, in his eighties?

2.A film about filming? The references to acting, Marta and her monologue? The references to Wajda himself, wanting the actress to work? The story of the cinematographer husband, his career and illness? The film dedicated to him? Krystyna Janda and her acting? The film of the river and the rush sequence, the actresses up set, running away in the rain? The questions being asked by the driver?

3.The monologue, the dark room, its atmosphere for a contemplation of illness and death?

4.The village, the doctor’s house, surgery, the town, the river, the bridge? Realistic atmosphere?

5.The musical score, the range of music, orchestrated, classical?

6.Krystyna Janda and her career, her cinematographer husband, his illness, her having to cope, her grief at his death, the meaning of his illness and death?

7.Marta, wife of the doctor, a good woman, her work, the x-rays, at home, the discussions with her friend?

8.Bogus, his friendship with Halinka, her leaving town? The encounter with Marta, the attraction, their talk, the discussions about books, his coming to borrow them? Marta going for the swim, seeing Bogus with Halinka on the bridge, her upset, leaving? His arrival, the talk, affectionate, going out to get the rushes?

9.The scene of the swim, his getting into difficulties, the actresses upset, the drowning, running in the rain, the car giving her a lift, her explanation?

10.The scene of Bogus’s difficulties, the underwater photography, her swimming, the rescuer’s coming, his death?

11.Themes of death as affecting Krystyna Janda in her own life, in the characters in the film?