Wojtyszko, Maria

A quasi-autobiographical, full of absurd story conceived in the mind of the character called simply “I”. The action takes place during screenwriting workshops for filmmakers from Central Europe. Dull small-talks about the model plot structure do not translate into a normal life. The main heroine, brought to life by “I”, starts to create new, sometimes gargantuan characters. Fiction merges with reality, the characters invent each other and defy the omnipotent power of their creators.

"Foreign Language" refers not only to the internationality of the filmmakers’ team – this term conveys an inability to freely express one’s feelings despite strong skills of pitching. Foreign language stand also for alarming fascist tendencies emerging in Central Europe. People can be united by their basic need of integration – whether against hatred and xenophobia or through aggression and fanaticism.

“It’s a comedy drawing from the very process of writing, unveiling complicated yet amusing relation between the author and her heroine. These are the words that may ring the bell: “You are the main character. You need to do something to make something happen. People hate it when it doesn’t happen”. That’s an allusion to Tadeusz Różewicz’s The Card Index. Maria Wojtyszko peeps at the backstage of filmmaking and theatre-making, studies screenwriting process, invites to the stage filmmakers from Hungary and Slovakia, and a scriptwriter from the United States, to present us with the new The Card Index, adjusted to contemporary times and new modes of sensitivity”.

– Jacek Wakar, introductory essay to Polska jest mitem. Nowe dramaty – Polish contemporary drama anthology

Sam is thirteen. As if that alone wasn't enough of a disaster, his parents are just getting a divorce because his mother fell in love with an expatriate from the former Yugoslavia. Sam is an intellectual, so he's having trouble with the school bullies. He is lonely. His only friend is a hamster with a split personality. In addition, a new girl appears in the classroom, Wiola, whose family seems perfect to Sam. But only for a time... Sam, an outsider lacking self-confidence and a weirdo, tries to deal with his school enemy, Grzesiek, with the difficult situation at home, with his aversion to his mother's new man and his dad's parade of new girls, and most of all, with love. A funny, warm and wise story about problems with growing up, love and friendship, written in youthful language and comprehensible to everyone who had ever been thirteen years old.

Children are usually presented with an oversimplified explanation of the world. Those who deserve it go to heaven, and sinners are left in a sad corner (or a bubbling cauldron) in hell. Has anyone ever wondered what might happen if an unruly mum - a DJ who died in an accident and did not manage to say goodbye to her beloved son were to enter the afterlife?

The play by Maria Wojtyszko, full of twisted but also warm humour, is a record of the escape of two unusual renegades - a DJ named Jola and the silly devil Osmolka - through the corners of the afterlife. The journey through heaven and hell, dreamt of in the middle of a dark wardrobe, helps the young Tadzik to cope with the loss of his parent. The chase conducted by a host of somewhat garish angels and mouthy devils abounds in many gags, but gradually different thematic layers are also revealed. For example, multiple aspects of maternal love. The devil Mania, the mother of Osmolka, loves him with toxic love, resorting to deceit to keep her adult son at her side. Jola, though seemingly irresponsible and distracted, thinks only about the safety and peace of Tadzik's spirit. There will also be the Mother of God, who waits for a phone call from her Son all day long. But, as God will say, "if he doesn't call, he is happy and doesn't miss anything".

White Hill City is almost extinct, and the president is about to arrive with a pre-election message. He's threatened by a local band of Brothers D planning an attack. The town's residents hire a paid assassin, Gloomy Jim, to kill the murderous Brothers, which would be perfect if it wasn't for the fact that Jim is old and can't shoot anymore. Whores from the saloon are looking for a way out of this situation and decide to take matters into their own hands and not to rely on the courage and heroism of the men. Will they manage to defend White Hill City and save the president?

The end of the world... is a western-style feminist comedy in which the protagonists are thoroughly modern and their problems are very topical.

Poland, tail end of 80s. Victoria is expecting her first child, but is not sure who the father is. The pregnancy happened to her by accident and the girl doesn't know if she is mature enough to be a mother and if she wants to give birth at all. Anyway, she does not want to be like her parents. Victoria's grandmother suffered during the German occupation and Victoria's mother during the Communist era. Victoria lives in a time of apparent freedom and wants to do everything differently - she wants to be free and independent, to live her own life. But can you be free and independent and live your own life when a frightening stranger grows in your body? The story of a lonely young woman, experiencing a personality crisis due to an unwanted pregnancy, and having long - sometimes comical - conversations with her womb (symbolizing corporeality, femininity, instinct, motherhood), as well as reality confronted with absurdities, remains extremely topical in the era of discussions about tightening the anti-abortion law.