I Never Cry
In Piotr Domalewski's admirable second feature, a Polish girl travels to Ireland to repatriate her father's body.
Zofia Stafiej
If Piotr Domalewski is a name not known to me that is hardly surprising since I Never Cry is only the second feature to be written and directed by him and the first to be released here. On the evidence of this film he is a very able talent. Although it is rather unusual to find a movie that is a Polish/Irish co-production, it makes perfect sense here since the story being told begins and ends in Poland but for the greater part of its length its central character, 17-year-old Ola played by Zofia Stafiej, is seen during a visit to Dublin.
The reason for her trip is a sad one in that it is prompted by the news of her father’s sudden death. He is one of those Poles who had chosen to find work abroad and it was as a docker in Dublin that he met with a fatal accident. It might be expected that Ola’s mother (Kinga Preis) would be the one to undertake the journey and arrange for the body to be shipped back. However, Ola has a brother (Dawid Tulej) who, suffering from multiple sclerosis, needs to be looked after constantly. Consequently, her mother accepting that responsibility sends Ola instead despite her relatively young age and the fact that she has never flown in a plane before.
Ola has grown up away from her father and resents his absence and for that reason is comparatively unmoved by his death. She is, indeed, a sullen girl and one who is decidedly self-centred. This is apparent when her prime reaction to the news is annoyance that this will mean that a promise made by her father to buy her a car once she has passed her driving test will go by the board. However, as the story develops Ola’s outlook and character come under the influence of people and events in Ireland. Those encountered by her include some who help and others who do not and she soon finds her resourcefulness is called on to the full. That’s because her father’s lack of money together with a legal issue that prevents any compensation for the accident being paid threaten her chance of bringing the body home as planned.
Like the recent British film After Love, this is a small-scale work and one in which a death causes the pivotal figure to travel abroad. What it lacks is the warmth of After Love, but that is inevitable given Ola’s outlook. Even though Ola will ultimately be changed by her experiences, she is a difficult adolescent and that could lead some viewers to feel distant from the film. Yet it is very much to the credit of Zofia Stafiej that she makes Ola wholly believable and no less one commends Domalewski for a screenplay that never sentimentalises her. Although Ola does seek out some fellow Poles while in Dublin, Domalewski also scores in the way that he brings out the contrasts between the two countries with the Dublin location being very well used. Furthermore, the quality of the direction is enhanced by the editing of Agnieszka Glínska and, even if the ending tends to pull out all the stops, this is a very well-judged film. By choice it remains a personal story rather than something set up in order to comment more widely on the situation of immigrants. I Never Cry can’t be classified as a major film, but on its own terms it is a very good one.
Original title: Jak najdalej stad.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Zofia Stafiej, Kinga Preis, David Pearse, Cosmina Stratan, Zofia Przygonska, Liam Gaffney, Tomasz Dedek, Andrzej Klak, Wojciech Skibinski, Tomasz Zietek, Arkadiusz Jakubik, Dawid Tulej, Nigel O’Neill.
Dir Piotr Domalewski, Pro Jan Kwiecinski and Julie Ryan, Screenplay Piotr Domalewski, Ph Piotr Sobociński Jnr, Pro Des Katarzyna Filimoniuk and Edyta Fleszar, Ed Agnieszka Glínska, Music Hania Rani, Costumes Ola Staszko and Sarah Yeoman.
Akson Studio/MK1 Productions/Telewizja Polska (TVP)-Eureka Entertainment.
97 mins. Poland/Ireland. 2020. Rel: 23 July 2021. Cert. 15.