It has been a while since the “Cold War” craze and its three Academy Award nominations, but its Polish breakout star Joanna Kulig will soon reunite with director Paweł Pawlikowski once again.
“I’m singing in his next film,” she says. In the anticipated drama, starring Sandra Hüller, known as “1949/Vaterland,” Pawlikowski will explore the life of Thomas and Erika Mann in post-war Germany.
“This will be our fourth collaboration. I’m so proud this film exists, especially in these difficult times post-pandemic and strikes. Cinema is still fighting back.”
Kulig’s extensive run on the awards circuit – which coincided with her becoming a mother to a baby boy – raised her international profile, but she resisted the pressure to pursue solely U.S. projects. At Torino Film Festival, she’s presenting Nora Jaenicke’s psychological thriller “Isola.”
“Right after ‘Cold War,’ things got a bit crazy. I know some people expected me to stay [in the U.S.], but one reason why I’ve always admired Paweł Pawlikowski is that he has his own, very specific way of developing films. You have to find something that works for you and brings you peace and joy, instead of listening to all these external voices,” she notes.
“’Cold War’ opened me up to multiculturalism and so many new opportunities. They probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for that film. However, I also want to have a family life, and I think I’ve achieved that balance right now.”
Following Berlinale opener “She Came to Me” and Apple TV+ miniseries “Masters of the Air,” she’s focusing on European productions.
“They’re much closer. With ‘Isola,’ I could do so many things in Warsaw. I’ve always wanted to have a base, a permanent place of my own, and I’ve managed to build it now. It’s funny, because people in Poland keep asking me: ‘Oh, so you’re back?’ I never left!,” she laughs.
“We Poles are incredibly open to learning new languages and entering new working environments. There’s still this thought at the back of our head that we’re not good enough, which is a remnant from the communist era. My generation believed that the West was better somehow, but it’s time we learnt to appreciate ourselves.”
Before Pawlikowski’s latest, Kulig gets to sing in Jaenicke’s film as well, where she plays the much younger wife of a dying man, also named Joanna. Stuck on a remote island, she’s happy to welcome new caretaker Ada (Fanny Ardant), but Ada’s affection soon turns into obsession.
Jaenicke explains: “It was a Sicilian song because at first, the film was supposed to be set in Stromboli. We needed a brief moment when they could connect. They don’t need words; they just look at each other. This song really moves Ada and she gets to see a wild side of Joanna that wants to break free from being just a wife.”
“When I got to know Joanna [Kulig], her character rewrote itself, in a way. She has this intense gaze and she can look so angelic, but then there’s a shift. I saw a little bit of a devil in her too.”
“Isola” is produced by Manish Mundra, Ariens Damsi and Jaenicke for Drishyam Films International and Eliofilm.
Jaenicke, who is making her feature debut, also wanted to show Ardant in a different light. “We haven’t really seen her in a role like this before. Fanny said she liked Ada because ‘she isn’t likeable’.”
Then again, nobody is likeable in “Isola.” According to co-star Marco Rossetti, playing Joanna’s love interest, Jaenicke’s film has a noir feel, with all the characters inflicting psychological and physical violence on each other and ultimately being united by their “ambiguous morality.”
“It’s almost like some archetypal story,” the director sums up.
“Ada comes into Joanna’s life when she’s already thinking about breaking free from her pattern: she always ends up with people who try to control her. In a way, it’s a feminist story. But then it’s another woman who suddenly dominates her, just like a man.”
variety.com
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