AN INTERVIEW WITH JACEK PETRYCKI, ONE OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE FILM “RETURNS OF AGNIESZKA H.”
The film “Returns of Agnieszka H.” by Krystyna Krauze and Jacek Petrycki is one of the fifteen titles listed for the Documentary Competition at the 29th Warsaw Film Festival. In this interview Jacek Petrycki talks to Daniel Stopa about the process of creating this film.
The 29th Warsaw Film Festival is starting on Friday, 11 October at Multikino Złote Tarasy in Warsaw and is going to last until 20 October. In the Documentary Competition of the festival, fifteen films are going to compete for awards, including the film “Returns of Agnieszka H.” directed by Krystyna Krauze and Jacek Petrycki. Daniel Stopa has talked with Jacek Petrycki about the creating process of the film and about his cooperation with Agnieszka Holland
Daniel Stopa: Agnieszka Holland mentioned in one of the interviews, that together with Krystyna Krauze you’ve gathered so much material, that you can make literally anything out of it. What strategy did you follow during the selection process?
Jacek Petrycki: There was quite a lot of material, because we’ve spoken to every single person from Agnieszka’s student years at the FAMU Film School in Prague. Later on, we decided to stick to the Polish friends’ stories only. These stories seemed to be the most vivid and Agnieszka’s political activity was also connected with Poland. We’ve rejected the classic, dull interviews of purely informative character. The selection came out to be good, it made the film warmer.
But we also see the Czech friends. Arita Hucková, Eda Kriseová or Jaroslava Pokorná, who played in the “Burning Bush”…
Arita and Eda helped Agnieszka to feel at home in Prague, they introduced her to the new city and culture. At that time, they were very close to each other, although they were very critical of her wedding with Laco for instance. Arita, Eda and Jarka appear in the film, because they were the only ones who met with Agnieszka after all those years. Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to get other of her friends to meet with her. Besides, she didn’t feel like seeing all of them (laughter).
You can find the full interview here.
It is worth mentioning, that four other Polish documentaries have been listed for the non-competetive section of the 29th Warsaw Film Festival, the Polish Short Films Panorama, that is “The Whistle” by Grzegorz Zariczny, “Mother 24/7” by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, “Our Curse” by Tomasz Śliwiński and “Rogalik” by Paweł Ziemilski.
You can find the full programme of 29th Warsaw Film Festival on the festival's website.