Heart Parade

Sentimentality is the order of the day in Filip Zylber's Polish romcom, the latest sugar injection from Netflix.

A dodgy story: Anna Próchniak and Michal Czernecki

Whatever happened to Polish cinema in the last twenty years? The great days of Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Munk and Jerzy Skolimowski, not to mention Roman Polanski, seem to be long-gone. Time was when Polish films were regularly submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as potential Oscar nominees. However, while many were called, few were actually nominated for consideration and hardly any became outright winners. Andrzej Wajda was awarded an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1999, since when only Roman Polanski's The Pianist has won three Oscars, while Pawel Pavlikowski won for Ida, a well-deserved prizewinner in 2014. However, over the years there have been many good films from Poland by the directors mentioned above and others that would also have been worthy of such an honour.

But what of today? Poland still has a thriving industry, although the resulting films are not necessarily given a wide release overseas. Are they still making serious films as they did under the Communist regime? We may never know, but this reviewer sincerely hopes they are releasing something better than Heart Parade, the latest Netflix soft-soap love story which rarely seems to give the impression, despite locations in Warsaw and Krakow, that it was actually filmed in Poland. Morever, as is now common with Netflix, the original language is dubbed into English so that, although the skilful result is acceptable, the film loses the flavour of its mother tongue.

Here we have Magda (Anna Próchniak), a young woman seeking advancement in a Warsaw television network. However, instead of promotion she is offered the task of looking after Todd, the dachshund of Zula (Monika Krzywkowska), her retiring boss, even though she has always hated dogs since she was bitten by one. Unknown to Magda, the dog has eaten Zula's retirement cake and become sick. Magda gets the sack and loses her boyfriend into the bargain. In order to retrieve her job she plans to interest Zula in a negative story about the annual Dachshund Parade in Krakow which her boss loathes. Magda heads for Krakow and by chance happens to end up renting a room near to the parade.

Enter the love interest in the shape of widowed father Krzysztof (Michal Czernecki) and his young son Karol (Iwo Rajski) who has a dachshund called Trombone. Young Karol had advertised their spare room on the Internet so that his dad could find himself a new girlfriend and stop feeling lonely. Well, if you haven't already guessed what happens next, then there are really no surprises in store. As Magda helps Karol with his school bully problems and his would-be girlfriend Tosia (Maria Czerepinska), she also gets to know Trombone despite her antipathy towards the mutt. Then, of course, love is all around in a Richard Curtis sort of way, although director Filip Zylber lacks Curtis’s light touch with such fragile material. It’s all just too inoffensively tame for words.

I trust and hope that Heart Parade is not typical of Poland’s present film output in that it relies heavily on American attitudes to entertainment. It is unlikely to win an Oscar at the next Academy ceremony. With Netflix customers leaving in droves, it is doubtful that this is the sort of film that will make them renew their subscriptions in a hurry.

Original title: Parada serc.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Anna Próchniak, Michal Czernecki, Iwo Rajski, Piotr Rogucki, Monika Krzywkowska, Katarzyna Zielinska, Kamil Szeptycki, Maria Czerepinska.

Dir Filip Zylber, Pro Magdalena Szwedkowicz, Screenplay Wiktor Piatkowski, Natalia Matusek and Marianna Pochron, Ph Malte Rosenfeld, Pro Des Agata Lepacka and Ewa Solecka, Ed Krzysztof Boron, Music Pawel Lucewicz, Costumes Marta Ostrowicz.

Endemol Shine Polska-Netflix.
108 mins. 2022. Poland. UK and US Rel: 15 June 2022. Cert PG.