Life in me
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Life in me |
| Original title | Ono |
| Country of production | Poland , Germany |
| original language | Polish |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Małgorzata Szumowska |
| script | Małgorzata Szumowska |
| production |
Karl Baumgartner Raimond Goebel |
| music | Paweł Mykietyn |
| camera | Michał Englert |
| cut | Jacek Drosio |
| occupation | |
| |
Leben in mir is a Polish feature film from 2004 that was made as a German co-production.
action
Ewa has not finished school, still lives with her parents and now works in a gas station. At the edge of the gas station she meets the street whore Iwona while smoking. The two different women become friends. Ewa suspects she may be pregnant. She is determined to have the child aborted. She can only do this illegally and has to pay cash for it. She steals the money from her mother's household budget. She carries the money with her when she takes the bus to work at night. On the bus she meets Michał, the nocturnal stray dog. The next day she is examined and the doctor confirms her suspicions. She makes an appointment with the doctor to have the abortion performed . The doctor demands an advance payment and Ewa has to find out that the money is no longer in her pocket. Michał stole her on the bus. The young woman is desperate. In the corridor of the hospital, like in a treatment room, she observes an expectant mother who is receiving an ultrasound treatment . The doctor explains to the joyful woman that the embryo can already hear her and that it recognizes its mother's voice. Ewa is fascinated by this idea and slowly her attitude towards the child she is carrying begins to change. From now on Ewa has conversations with the unborn child and her view of the world becomes more positive every day.
One day Ewa meets Michał again. The two fall in love, but Ewa soon realizes that Michał is earning his living as a drug dealer . She tries to convince the disaffected man of a better world. Her friend Iwona also seems to be lucky at last. She is getting married and invites her friend to her home village. However, during a further examination, Ewa gets the diagnosis that the child's life is at risk. She goes to the wedding anyway. There is a scandal when a man recognizes Iwona and tells her newlywed about her past. The man is desperate and goes into the water. The non-swimmer is finally saved by Ewa. He asks his rescuer whether the Iwona story is true. She swears by her life and that of her child that this is not true.
Back home, Ewa is finally admitted to the hospital with labor that started too early. The birth is extremely complicated and Ewa falls into a trance. Did she survive the birth? Is the child alive? The film leaves that open.
background
The film is a co-production between Polish television ( TVP ), ARTE and ZDF . The North Rhine-Westphalia Film Foundation and the Eurimages film funding of the European Union also contributed funds to the production. Based on the script idea by Małgorzata Szumowska, her mother wrote the journalist Dorota Terakowska a novel that became a bestseller in Poland .
The actor Marek Walczewski plays Ewa's father in this film. Like his character, Walczewski is seriously ill with Alzheimer's disease . He plays a music lover who is slowly losing his memory. He takes part in a television quiz show where his musical knowledge is asked. In a moving scene on this show, Walczewski says goodbye to his family, who are watching the program on TV, but at the same time also to the audience in the cinema. Walczewski himself already had problems remembering the script. The texts were spoken to him for every scene.
Reviews
- Lexicon of the International Film : The attitude of a pregnant woman who lived listlessly through the day in Krakow changes when she suddenly understands the unborn child as the source of all values of life, no longer wants to have it aborted, but explains the world to him at every turn. At the same time she has to deal with the imminent death of her father and falls in love with a young notorious skeptic and nihilist . What could be a “poetic daydreaming” about an existential search for meaning is lost in stylish advertising images and the narrative structures of a soap opera. The ingratiation to Western European success films makes the film an escapist lucky bag full of kitsch and cheap symbolism.
- www.kino-zeit.de : Leben in mir / Ono sticks to something deeply dreamlike and sublime, despite the gravity of the topic and the sadness of the surroundings, which makes this film an extraordinary sensual experience. Again and again Malgosia Szumowska finds religious allegories and images that suggest biblical parables to characterize Eve and her environment. In addition, there is the wonderful music of Johann Sebastian Bach, which skillfully underlines the quasi-religious character of the story and makes you forget over long stretches of the film how sparing the dialogues are here.
Awards
At the 2004 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia , the music by composer Paweł Mykietyn was recognized as the best film music. The jazz pianist Leszek Możdżer , who recorded all the piano passages, played a major role in the success of the film music . Małgorzata Szumowska first presented the film in Germany at the Berlinale 2005 in the Panorama section and was later in Wiesbaden at the GoEast Festival , where she was awarded the prize for best director.