Cicha noc - film review

Not a secret for (sparse) faithful readers of this blog I am fond of Wojciech Smarzowski’s films. I watched all, except for Róża (time to catch up tomorrow or on Tuesday),  and reviewed here Drogówka, Pod mocnym aniołem and Wołyń. If so, seeing “Cicha noc” by Piotr Domalewski (silver screen debut of the young gifted director and scriptwriter) was a must.

If naturalistic depictions of grossly imperfect reality and acutely presented characters take your fancy, you will definitely not regret watching this recently premiered film. Unlike in most films where Christmas Eve is a bright day and snow lies all around, here even the weather is painfully realistic – the day is dark, grey and it rains. Just like on most Christmas Eves over the last decade.

The dark side of Polishness and shattered family relationships are played up in the entire plot. The Christmas Eve is finally shown as it looks out in many homes, as a source of distress and far from being ideal. The director has deftly managed to squeeze all sorts of familiar shortcomings into one family. A viewer beholds a multi-child family, grandfather with strong inkling for alcohol, jobless father on the rehab, over-caring, tired-out mother, children arguing over dividing proceeds from inheritance after another grandpa.

The director has put together all nasty things which might happen on this one special day and bestowed them on one family spending Christmas under one roof. This reflection of uneasy celebration is probably an amplified version of what many of us could see in a mirror. Luckily, if some of us witnessed or heard of scenes similar to those played out in Cicha noc, this was a just a fraction of the dirt showed in the film. Besides, the dirt is bearable, it does not flow out of the screen into audience as it does in Smarzowski’s films.

Many would be brought down by the cumulation of dirt the film, but my spirits have been lifted. Every time I see most people have it worse than me, it reminds me I ought to be grateful for what I have instead of complaining about what could come out better.