This is the first 10 minutes from a 30-minute interview with the co-directors of My Friend the Polish Girl, Ewa Banaskiewicz and Mateusz Dymek.

The directing couple produced an experimental feature film which explored the isolating realities of a Polish immigrant living in London, and the voyeurism a documentary must avoid. It is a fictional piece about a documentary filmmaker exploring the life of a single subject. That subject is Alicja, a struggling actress in her 30s, an immigrant from Poland, and the sometime girlfriend of a man dying of cancer. Her hyper-sexualization, both by herself, and increasingly by the woman behind the camera reveal a dark past she has compartmentalized, but clearly affects her daily life. It is a brilliantly inventive  movie in terms of its style and a powerfully honest exploration of character, aided by the fantastic performances by Aneta Piotrowska (as Alicja) and Emma Friedman-Cohen (as Katie, the documentary filmmaker within the film.)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6987468/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Q: Where did this film first premiere?

Rotterdam, in competition.

Q: How did it do?

People liked it! We didn’t win anything, but it had a good response.

Q: Are there plans after Edinburgh?

There are but they haven’t been announced yet! It will be in a few days though! Just a few days and it will be out.

Q: Where did you first find money for this project?

In our bank accounts. (They laugh.) The budget is secret, let’s put it like that. We wrote it, well we’ve made films for many years, you know. We’ve had shorts in Cannes and Telluride. You know, I felt like we knew what we were doing and sort of what our idea was. We felt like we had the skill set to pull this off for next to nothing. So we wrote it for actors we knew. There were certain locations we knew we could get either very cheaply or for nothing. Also the style of the film is quite for low fi, so it lends itself to a cheap look, if you know what I mean.

Q: What was the first film you made?

My God! That was a long time ago. It depends on how you count them… student shorts or … I (Ewa) remember my first film. Oh no it was even before that … (Mateusz jumps in). I did a Lego animation when I was eight on a VHS camera.

Q: What Legos?

They had these… like not the Duplo and not the small ones. They had these in between ones, like Fabuland or something… They were Legos and I had a car chase, but it was sort of static and I had the trees… You know, I would move the trees behind the thing so they looked like they were moving. But then I couldn’t figure out, when the car tuns what happens to the trees. So then it sort of looked like the car was chasing the trees, and so that was my first film.

Q: So maybe a bit experimental then?

Probably, yeah. That’s where it all started. (Ewa Jumps in.) I think I did a film at university, which was probably in like 1990 one or something. Yeah, it was a long time ago, and I remember, and it was a module at university, because I went to do performing arts, and I started to do directing but it was for theater. And, I had a film module (course) and I made this little movie, you know, all on my own, like from VHS to VHS editing. Analog. And I was super nervous after it and I remember my tutor taking me aside, and saying “I think you’ve really got something”. That was the first time I felt like “I think this is something I’m really meant to do. This is a thing I can do and I’m sort of better at it than other people.” So (she laughs) we’ll see if that goes on, you know”. Yeah I think that was my first film at university. Which, I thought was so good that I sent it to a competition, and that was my only copy! Yeah, it was sort of ridiculous. (Mateus jumps back in.) I mean we’ve done sort of short-length films and mid-length films that are a half hour to forty five minutes, and they’ve gone to festivals, but we’ve done a lot of tv and radio and… (Ewa Jumps in.) Because we were based in Poland for a while they had us agreeing to do half-hour TV dramas. So we’ve done a lot and it has jus been so hard to get onto the next rung even with Cannes/Teulluride accolades, and half/mid length versions. We’ve written dozens of radio plays to produce stuff. Still, it was just so hard so for this film, we thought we were not even going to apply for money, because that would be 5 years down the drain and we just though “We’re gonna do it”.

Q: Is this your first feature?

Mhmm. Yeah.

Q So until now its been shorts and all the radio plays and all that?

Uhuh.

Q: Who do you produce the radio plays for?

BBC Radio! So we’ve worked as actors/writers for them for a long time, and with the last one, I think we had directed a few in Poland. Because we sometimes direct a few in Poland, well two only, and we’ve written a myriad here. I think we got to the stage where we felt to do it justice we had to direct them ourselves. So, we talked to the commissioning editor and he said, “Fine, but you have to set up a company.” So we set up a company and we produced it. We both produced and directed it, which we love doing. Producing is hard but it allows us the most control and lots of key decisions come through the money guy. (Mateusz jumps in.) Going back to the original question, I think we were very much inspired by American friends. Because in Europe, everything is state-funded, so you apply to the government and the film counselor, or equivalent, and you wait, and you either get it or not. So if you don’t get it, then that’s over. Whereas, obviously the U.S. doesn’t have the equivalent, and we were very much inspired by — (Ewa interjects.) Yeah, two of our friends have done features off their own back completely, and we just thought “God, that’s liberating.” I mean really, it’s been really hard but its been amazing to pursue what you want to do, and you be in charge of it and somehow getting it done. I mean that’s a great feeling. (Mateusz jumps in.) And Hard. (Ewa adds.) And hard. It’s been really hard.

Q: What was your elevator pitch to those you wanted to involve on the project?

“Do you want to be in a film?” (Both laugh) “We’re going to give you a really good part.” We kinda approached the actors even while we were writing the script, and then asked them “Would you be interested in being in something like this?” Anetta, we had over with Dan who plays Michael, her boyfriend. In real life they actually have a different relationship, but we picked them because they were friends. We told them, “If you’re up for it, we’ll write it for you. Commit now, and if not then we won’t.” She said “Yeah, ok,” and then obviously she had to read the script, but when they said “yes” then we said “Well then we’re going to write something for you”. I think that’s quite a nice thing to hear, and she’s good. I mean we knew they’d be good. She’s amazing.

You can hear the rest of the 30 minute interview here.