RYSA (SCRATCH)
Poland, 2008, 89 minutes, Colour.
Jadwiga Jankowska- Cieslak, Krzysztof Stroinski.
Directed by Michal Rosa.
A very sombre delving into Poland's Communist past – and the issue that has kept raising its head in recent years (also concerning priests and bishops-elect): who were the informers at those times, what did they communicate, what did they do, and what should happen to them now.
After a dinner party celebrating many years of marriage, a couple look at their gifts and find a video of a television program. As they watch, a TV guest, claims that the husband married the wife so that he could inform on her politically suspect and imprisoned father. They gloss over the claims as impossible. But the wife, a university science lecturer, cannot let it go. She visits the TV guest, visits a friend of her father and his daughter, looks at copies of documents, pores over photo albums. She withdraws from her husband – and also loses her sense of taste. And, the ever present but unanswered question: who sent the tape?
The film shows the consequences of deteriorating trust between spouses, the investigative paranoia of the wife as she continues to probe.
The screenplay leaves the audience unsure about the truth of the claims, though there are enough indications that they may well be true.
The husband's health declines. Their daughter visits, defends her father's care for her while growing up, while her mother was uninterested and pursued her career. The mother then moves to another town, rents a house, explores its locked rooms and (symbolically) identifies with the unknown people who lived there.
The film's questions about informers are important. However, even more important are the questions about consequences, the possibilities for change, the roles of forgetting and/or forgiving.
1.Polish history? The communist era? The totalitarian experience? The contrast with later freedoms? The past catching up with individuals and society? The consequences?
2.The Krakow locations, the city, the park, homes, the university? The passing of the seasons? Nova Huta? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?
3.The year 2000: ten years of freedom, changes in Poland, openness, yet an atmosphere from the past? The justification of the past?
4.The park theme, Joanna passing through so often, the crowds, the man in the wheelchair? The friends, sitting, eating? The change of seasons?
5.Joanna and Jan? Forty years married, the celebration, his cooking, her being the host, the friends arriving, the chatter, the gossip, the variety of gifts, the video, putting it in the machine, looking at it, experiencing the accusations?
6.Joanna and teaching, the images and the symbol of the insects, the enemy, appearances? University and friends, the students in the lecture, her stern demeanour? Colleagues? The bugs, transferring them to her home? The scenes of care?
7.Her checking the gifts, pondering what had happened, talking to Jan, his denying the accusations? His asking what if they were true? What difference would it make? Her staying at home? Her manner, her clothing, the gradual transition from red to black? The visit to the interviewee, her anger, his giving her the documents? Her examining them? The photos, looking in the album, her suspicions? The evidence of the polka dot dress? The suspicion eating away at her? Literally losing her sense of taste? The phone calls?
8.Her continuing the investigation, the difficulties with Jan, the bedroom, the health declining, Joanna moving out, the new apartment, Jan and his illness?
9.The visit of the daughter, her supporting her father, rebuking her mother for her lack of care when they were growing up?
10.The new apartment, the locked room, Joanna searching, identifying with the people who lived there? The clothes, the wig, going out in the wig?
11.Jan, his collapse, in the hospital, Joanna’s reluctance to visit, her finally giving in?
12.Themes of forgiveness, forgetting? The truth, change, reparation?
13.The title, the scratch on the glass of the photo? The image of scratching the surface and finding depths?
