Katarzyna Figura. Anna Dymna. Do we need to say more?!
During the festival in Torun played host to, among others, two outstanding Polish actresses. Katarzyna Figura came to talk about Panie Dulskie by Filip Bajon, while Anna Dymna came to receive the Golden Angel of Tofifest for Artistic Insolence.
Anna Dymna: "an ordinary woman"
The meeting with Dymna was preceded by a screening of the classic piece of Polish cinema, An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill – a beautiful story about the tragic love between King Sigismund II Augustus, the last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and noblewoman Barbara Radziwillowna. The role of the king's beloved wife was portrayed by Anna Dymna. We are still bewitched by the actress' beauty, although it's been 33 years since the film was made.
Anna Dymna has more than 250 roles in cinema, theatre, and television, to her name, and she started her professional career being only 18 years old. And despite reaching retirement age, as she mentioned laughing, the idea of slowing down for a moment has not crossed her mind. 'I'd stop living, if I did not play. I see the stage as my safe haven, where I can rest,' she said.
There were many questions about her charity activities, since Anna Dymna has been running the 'Against the Odds' Foundation that aims at helping the mentally disabled. Anna Dymna has been a long-time "icon" in the world of charity. 'Deep in their hearts, all people are good and they want to help. Unfortunately, goodness has become somewhat suspicious in the ever-running world of today, as the society follows the quid pro quo attitude,' she concluded. She emphasised that every life was meaningful, saying: 'You see a freak and believe that his life has no point. But come a little closer, and you will see a beautiful person, a unique creation. It is the disabled who save this world. They make us more human.'
Dymna has strongly underlined the fact that she is "an ordinary, regular person", who loves riding her bicycle, picking mushrooms, and strolling through the woods. 'Actors are seen as being abnormal, but I have been fighting all my life for the right to be normal,' she said during the meeting.
Anna Dymna enchanted the audience, who laughed and got emotional, along with her. She has fully deserved her Golden Angel, but has no intention of resting on her laurels.
Katarzyna Figura talks about Panie Dulskie
Following the screening of the lastest film by Filip Bajon, the audience of Tofifest participated in a meeting with Katarzyna Figura, who performed the role of Melanie's mother. The actress talked about the role in the film by Bajon. It turned out that it was not the book by Gabriela Zapolska that the actress was inspired by. Instead, Katarzyna Figura looked for inspiration in psychology and work by Carl Gustav Jung, rather than in the book The Morality of Mrs. Dulska.
The film is as much an adaptation of the book, as it an artistic variation on the drama by Gabriela Zapolska. According to Figura, her character in the film is a woman overwhelmed by the bulk of family secrets, on one hand, and by the personality of her mother, on the other. That woman has never fully developed herself and feeds on unfulfilled fantasies, while the circumstances she must suffer lead her to even greater frustrations.
The actress has also shared her first impressions she had, after going through the script. She claimed it was difficult to interpret, since it included a multi-layered structure. Time shifts and the necessity to portray both a young woman and a woman burdened with accumulated experience, were just two of the challenges she had to face.
Panie Dulskie is a story about a film director, Melanie, who wants to make a film about her own family. When preparing for shooting, she discovers many facts that her mother and grandmother have kept in secret for many long years. The film premièred in cinemas just a little while ago, on 2nd October.
Anna Imalska, Press Office of Tofifest
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