15. september 2008, oppdatert 14. september 2008


[Caption to the photo: Tricks is the story of Stefek who lives with his mother and sister in a small squalid town in Poland. The boy spends much time following his almost grown-up sister and her boyfriend.]

'Beauty is in people, not in the surroundings,' says Andrzej Jakimowski, who with his Tricks - the praised portrayal of close things - introduces the Polish film into a new golden age.

MODE STEINKJER

HAUGESUND (Dagsavisen): The longing for the father, admiration for the elder sister, these small yet essential feelings have restored the Polish film to its place on the international map in a way we have not experienced for decades. Now that the bonds between Poland and Norway are stronger than before, the universal movie by Andrzej Jakimowski is an important instrument for further communication. Shooting his collective, documentary-like and personal films, the 45-year-old director casts his family and friends in many major roles.
'My father died a year before the completion of Tricks, which may have affected the atmosphere of the film, without myself being aware of it. Perhaps I wanted to meet him again, not necessarily in the flesh, but in the form of this melancholy which lies in my personal study of meeting my father in thought. My film is not autobiographical, however, it contains a lot of truth,' says Jakimowski to Dagsavisen.

PORTRAIT OF THE SISTER
Tricks tells about Stefek who lives with his mother and sister in a small squalid town in Poland, playing alone near the railroad tracks. In his longing for his long-missing father the boy begins to fantasize that one of the men seen at the station is his dad. He makes up his mind to reunite him with his mother. Besides, he spends time following his nearly grown-up sister and her boyfriend, just like Jakimowski himself did.
'It's true. My sister has always been an important source of my inspiration. She has always been very independent, having a positive attitude to everybody around. No matter where she was heading, alone or, especially, with boys, I wanted to follow her. I didn't do it with intent to pester them, but just because I adored my sister. It seems to me that having siblings of the other sex is quite an exotic feeling. It's funny, true and beautiful,' says the Polish director and goes on to add, 'I'm not as nice as she is, but I've always wanted to be like her!'

RICH HISTORY
Poland has one of the richest film histories in the world, with its famous film school in Lodz, which was the beginning for Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi. In the following years special international renown was won by the late Krzysztof Kieœlowski. Andrzej Jakimowski has taken up the baton in the artistic movie, keeping a high and bittersweet temperature of his story. Telling stories, the director oftentimes uses words like 'beauty' and 'beautifully', which is also reflected in his two films, comprised of the beautiful moments in the frequently dull, sad and realistic surroundings.
'Beauty is in people. I like my actors and often make films when improvising on the streets, meeting people who do not always know they're in a movie,' says Jakimowski laughing, a bit ashamed.
'If people are likeable, they often end up in my films, but as it's hard to do it in a usual film way, I frequently resort to maneuvers diverting their attention, which makes it possible to film them from different places without their knowledge,' he goes on to say.
'But later I certainly ask their permission, which everyone gives.'
Andrzej Jakimowski emphasizes that making a film with amateurs cast in main roles is difficult. Most of them, as soon as they spot the camera, try too hard, or start playing roles. Jakimowski thinks that his experience as a documentary film-maker has given him the subconscious possibilities of making feature movies.
'It has made me learn how I can watch other people, and that's my primary talent. It causes that I know how to make both amateurs and professionals behave naturally. Besides, I have an outstanding photographer in my crew,' he goes on to say, meaning his regular camera operator, Adam Bajerski.

DOCUMENTARIES
'This is my way of telling stories,' says the director about the way in which he combines his powers of observation with the ability to behold beauty in all people. If Tricks may be additionally considered to be a documentary outlook on the present time, that can be deemed an added value. Above all else, Jakimowski loves filming people in their natural milieu, finding nothing more satisfying than the feeling that he has managed to capture a magic moment - as he puts it.
'Personally, I'm interested in politics and social issues, but from the storyteller's point of view such topics are not interesting to me. Life is short, and I think it's better to focus on the beautiful and lasting in the moment than deal with stories which will soon vanish into the past. If I had grown up during wartime, I would be preoccupied by filming the people who fought then. All the time I am looking around for people and emotions attached to the moment and future,' says the director.
In that case, what films interest you, applying this theory to your own movies?
'I would like my films to be still interesting in 20, 40 years from now. I love watching films whose makers have succeeded in capturing the moment in time and history. Films which show how beautiful the life was there and then, based on how the people lived and behaved. Such films will always be relevant,' says Jakimowski.
His first significant film experience, which made all the elements slip into place, was one of the first films by Kieœlowski, Personnel, dating from the days when the director made feature movies which also were documentaries, with the professional actors and amateurs, about one another.
'They simply were the films in which one could sense great naturalness, which are still fresh and relevant today, after many years. I behold beauty in the moments Kieœlowski captured in them. Unlike other people, I didn't like his later movies so much, I'm afraid it's because he needed more acceptance from the outside and worked out a compromise with his own film art,' says Jakimowski. 'I don't do that,' he goes on to add explicitly.

[Caption to the photo: MISSING HIS FATHER: Tricks is a superb story of maturation, in which particularly the two young principal parts come across splendidly.]

online version:
http://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/filmer/article368877.ece