Dom dobry - film review

I am quite fond of Wojciech Smarzowski’s films, to such extent that as a person not into a moving pictures, I reviewed four of his films here: Drogówka, Podmocnym aniołem, Wołyń and Kler.

Whenever Mr Smarzowski releases a new film, he touches upon a meaningful social problem and depicts it hitting exactly where it hurts. For many his films are too naturalistic and filthy. Many critics have claimed while shooting “Dom dobry” he had gone over the top with filth and cruelty, an approach I cannot hold with, since my sensitivity to filth and cruelty is probably below-average. Lots of people who have seen the film argue the actor who played the oppressor, Tomasz Schuchardt, I believe unknown to wider audience until now, was the least suitable for the role. When looking at him, I would argue he has a son-of-a-bitch apparition at first sight. In one of the pre-premiere interviews he revealed in had been impossible to identify with the character he had play, but someone must have done that job.

Domestic violence is a hidden problem not only in Poland. Dramas play out behind closed door in families which seem normal. Hundreds thousand of Poles, mostly women, are victims of oppressors who resort to physical, mental, economic and sexual misdeeds to bully their targets. I am immensely grateful to Mr Smarzowski for painting an accurate and merciless picture of the phenomenon.

The director must have done a lot of homework while delving on the topic before setting out to shoot the film. He shows a repeatable scheme which puts a victim into a vicious circle and then keeps it turning. It begins with upbringing in a defunct family, running away from it into the arms of at first charming tormentor who bombs their new partner with love and slowly manipulates them. Unacceptable behaviours slowly creep in and get more frequent among the good moments. Victims are usually treated like a boiled frog and refuse to try to break away from a toxic relationship for several reasons, including economic dependence, lack of family or friends to take comfort in or toxic relationship patterns learnt at home.

The premiere of the film coincided with an intense time in Szlachetna Paczka. This year I have come across a few women being hosts of Warszawski Ośrodek Interwencji Kryzysowej who have run away from their violent husbands or partners and are on their way to start over. Having listened to the stories of their lives I partly relived them in a cinema. It also occurred to me I owe them watching this film if I am to be an emphatic volunteer.

To spoil as little as possible, the film has two endings. One of them is a poignant reminder not every cloud has a silver lining and an oppressed human might overstep its boundaries to fight out freedom.

A call for a slow-down

The recent weeks have been overly hectic. A combination of things going uphill in Szlachetna Paczka (and me trying to solve all oncoming problems), a pile-up of complicated transactions on the table at work and other minor stuff have been depriving me of time to get proper rest and recharge batteries.

On Thursday, 6 November I woke up before 6:00 a.m., commuted to the office, toiled away in haste, knocked off after 5:00 p.m., came back home, changed clothes and cycled to Warszawski Ośrodek Interwencji Kryzysowej (no English equivalent of such centre I would be familiar with) to have three meeting with families to be potentially taken care of as part of Szlachetna Paczka programme. I returned home shortly before 10:00 p.m. with head full of issues to be sorted out.

On Friday, 7 November the plan was to put the white shirts to the washing machine and hang them out to dry on a balcony before setting off to Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej (council centre for social welfare) to pick up papers for Szlachetna Paczka and then to work, the to have three other charity-related meeting in the evening. Upon eating breakfast I realised the washing machine did not make any sound. I headed to the bathroom it check it out. The appliance was dead and not reacting to any methods of restarting. I had to open the washing machine, whose drum was full of water. I managed to get rid of the dirty water overflowing the bathroom, get the shirts out, wring them and put them into a bowl. As I was about to take the unwashed shirts to the balcony, I felt a strain in my back ribs, behind my chest. It virtually paralysed me. I only managed to fall over in a controlled way. I could not move for some 10 minutes, then as the pain begun to ease, I crawled to the bedroom, scrambled up to bed and weighed up pros and cons of calling an ambulance. As I was feeling better minute by minute, I did not decide to do so.

Some two hours later I felt good enough to leave home, take a 504 bus to pick up documents from Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej, ambled to the underground station and turned up late at work. In the office, I felt unwell and gave in after two hours, took the laptop and headed home. Back in my bedroom, I ordered a telemedicine appointment, told a doctor what had happened a few hours earlier and was instructed to report to a hospital immediately. Kind of scared I called a taxi and 20 minutes later I was in an emergency ward of Medicover hospital. Long story short, I was thoroughly examined, mostly to rule out heart attack and diagnosed with a muscle crump, then given a drip with antispasmodics. After a two-hour lie-in, I was discharged and felt well enough to return home by public transport, calling on a pharmacy to buy myself painkillers.

On Saturday, 8 November I carried on with painkillers but went to the swimming pool in the evening. On Sunday, 9 November I cleaned my flat and gave up on my painkillers, as they were playing havoc with my stomach. On Monday, 10 November I was back on my bicycle. Up until now I feel well, although I do have no idea what caused the incident which took place on 7 November. I presume it was stress and haste overload, so the lesson learnt is take less on my back and slow it down. I am trying hard, but the process is slow and I stand a chance to pull it off once Szlachetna Paczka is over, i.e. in the second half of December.

With respect to the broken-down washing machine, it turned out my MPM appliance had most likely given up the ghost due to steering module defect. Such spare parts are not manufactured, nor sold as used ones and none of local technician wanted to take up the challenge of repairing the washing machine of that brand. I felt guilty of producing nearly 60 kilograms of rubbish (I hope somebody recycles parts of that washing machine), but also enjoy the comfort of using a brand-new Bosch washing machine. Before ordering it, I have made sure crucial spare parts are available and the appliance is constructed in a way which facilitates repair of nearly all imaginable defects (AI helps with such exercise and substantiates its answers). Besides, my new washing machine has been manufactured in Poland, near Łódź. Happily, my other white goods, all purchased in 1Q2019 are holding up well and I hope they will outlive substanially my washing machine which had served me for six years and eight months.

Od ja do my - book review

Volant is one of those contemporary Polish influencers whose online career began with blogging and with time expanded into social media and books (which often are just a well-arranged compilation of blog posts written over time). As his recognisability grew, Volant quit his anonymity and appears publicly under real name, Michał Szatiło. He is one of most renowned gurus of romantic relationships in Poland, privately a husband and father of two daughters, practising what he preaches. After years of hard work, he monetises on his popularity. His books are available online only and the one I'm about to review would set you back PLN 99 + delivery cost. I have hunted a used one in OLX, saved PLN 40 and have not helped Mr Szatiło out.

When setting about reading, I was sceptical towards the book, anticipating some 10% of its content would be ground-breaking. Astonishingly, I found between 20% and 30% to be of added value.

Volant posits (right on) the percentage of singletons these days is high since people tend to claim something has gone wrong with other people and with the world itself. Making a martyr of yourself and bearing a grudge against all potential partners who do not stack up against your perfection is the ideal recipe not to pair up by the end of your days. I need to take it to heart.

Easing up, as Volant advises, is the first, yet still insufficient step. Opportunities to do things, explore, visit places and... go places crop up every day. Seize them, as they involve meeting new people via whom you can get to know other new people and boost your chances to find a life companion offline.

To impress somebody you need to be attractive. You won’t change your look, apparition, height, sometimes you have limited impact on your weight, but a charming person is characterised by a beautiful mind and broad horizons. Therefore "doing your bit" is essential if you want to be perceived an attractive human. Volant tells you as an adult who left university, whose network has loosened, almost always you will start doing your bit on your own and only then people will join and follow you.

The author puts on the agenda one of my primary worries which has kept me company for years, i.e. I do not approach a woman romantically until I make sure she is not in a relationship. But if she indeed is taken, she should turn me down politely and I should back down, doing my best not to waste an opportunity.

While trying to pick out factors which bode well for a relationship in the long run, Volant selects three: the look (a sexual attraction is a must) which brings partners together, similar lifestyle and values which keep them together.

Dating apps are considered a valuable option, provided people who match each other ought to meet up offline possibly quickly. While face to face, the first conversation matters. It often follows a scheme of asking and answering questions about each other, resembling a mutual interrogation. Instead, people should talk about their goals, values, dreams, inhibitions and dislikes, boosting the odds of finding a common tongue.

If it clicks in, an early stage of a relationship develops. It is the time when partners make mistakes which impinge on the rest of their life together. This is the time for being 100% oneself, but not bending over backwards to be 200% yourself, to set boundaries and to talk over issues which arise as red flags. A fear of rejection, unjustified hopes things will shape up and other factors keep most people in the circle of those mistakes and consequently most of them end up in unsatisfactory relationships.

Volant calls into question a popular assertion that building a relationship must take a lot of effort. He claims a decent relationship needs to be fostered, but he compares it a long walk in flat terrain, which is a form of light physical exercise and contrasts it to a steep climb uphill, which involves substantial strain. He says if your relationship over the first two years is a road uphill, most likely it is a dead-end one.

October 2025 - weather recap

Seemingly, October 2025 in Warsaw appeared to be a cold and depressingly autumnal one. In fact, temperature-wise it has been perfectly normal, with mean temperature of +8.7C, exactly at the par with long-term (1991-2020) average. Perception of many has been shaped by a series of eight warm Octobers in a row between 2017 and 2024, with mean monthly temperatures ranging from +9.6C (2021) to +11.3C (2019).

The recent October was indeed a rainy one, with monthly rainfall totalling to 68.7 millimetres, vs. long-term average precipitation of 40.2 millimetres The blessed rain (171% of long-term average) has been a drop in the ocean in terms of solving the problem of drought, but we are keeping fingers crossed for next wet months, preferably for a snowy winter. Of note are thunderstorms with heavy, yet short downpours which smashed Warsaw on 26 October 2025 and 30 October 2025. Such phenomena happen very rarely at this time of year.

As the October was rainy and cloudy, temperature fluctuations were low, hence cold afternoons were offset by warm nights and mornings.

We had two frosty days in October (note the absence of sub-zero temperatures in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024), with the first frost being the earliest since 2001. Month-time low of -1.2C was measured on 3 October 2025. The first days of the month were some 5 Celsius degrees colder than long-term average for those specific days.

Month-time high of +18.9C was reported on 23 October 2025, during a short spell of golden autumn. It was the first time since 2010 when the maximum temperature in October was lower than +20C.

Forecasters claim early November will be making up for the lack of above-average temperatures in October, but what is seen in the weather predictions by no means extraordinary for this time of year. In the benchmark period of 1991-2020, the average November's highest temperature stood at +14.8C.

To refresh your memory, in recent two decades we had several spells of November warmth:
+15.5C on 8 November 2022,
+16.0C on 3 November 2020,
+16.5C on 4 November 2019,
+19.2C on 2 November 2018,
+15.8C on 8 November 2015,
+18.6C on 6 November 2014,
+15.7C on 3 November 2013,
+17.2C on 14 November 2010,
+16.9C on 1 November 2008.

Update: today temperatures topped in Warsaw at +16.8C, making it the warmest November afternoon since 7 years.