The great Polish opera diva Maria Foltyn created her greatest performance in Stanislaw Moniuszkos Halka, with which she toured worldwide - she was applauded by Stalin and admired by Castro. Today, when she is losing her voice, she has decided to give way to her successor. The film Viva Maria! is a tale of passion, sacrifice and devotion, and is an extraordinary story of passing down a voice.
Two women, one house. An intimate story about a Pole and a German placed by war on enemy sides and their parallel lives accidentally brought together. The film reflects on the concepts of invaders, victim, guilt and forgiveness. It confronts different experiences and their paradoxical similarities. It deals with the controversial subject of the post-war accountings. The visual narration is flowing, guided by memories and archives. Traditional documentation confronts experimental use of archival footage in the cinematic impression about displacement.
Long distances are part and parcel of the work of anyone delivering correspondence - narrow paths, potholed sidewalks, stairs up, stairs down. Karolina Breguła's film, shot in the summer of 2023, meticulously captures the daily route of Anna Nowak, a postwoman from Szczecin who covers an average of 12.41 kilometers each day.
