By Kasia Trojak
AFI FEST Daily News

Andrzej Wajda’s latest feature film SWEET RUSH intertwines three different storylines: one based on a short story by one of Poland’s most acclaimed writers, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz; a monologue of the lead actress about the death of her real life husband and one of Wajda’s closest collaborators, Edward Kłosinski; and a story about filmmaking itself. The film has a complex narrative that offers a simple and universal message about love and death.

The adapted Iwaszkiewicz short story is set in the post-war years and presents Marta (Krystyna Janda), a middle-aged woman married to a small-town doctor (Jan Englert), who finds out that she is terminally ill but keeps it a secret. She is not happy in her marriage and searches for love somewhere else. She meets a much younger man, Bogus (Pawel Szajda) who reminds her of her youth and her sons who died during the war. They develop an innocent relationship while meeting by the river and admiring the smell of sweet rush. But, just when everything seems to be going well their relationship ends. Bogus drowns while trying to collect some sweet rush for her.

Another layer of this multi-dimensional tale is a story with real-life monologues of Krystyna Janda dealing with the premature death of her husband, the acclaimed cinematographer Edward Kłosinski. Wajda introduces the monologues right after the opening credits which appear over images of a peaceful river that drifts to the sounds of oneiric music. This idyllic picture is ended when Wajda shows Janda waking up from a bad dream. Wajda moves the viewer to a dark room, shot with a wide-angle lens and a static camera in the vein of Edward Hopper’s paintings, in which Janda speaks out her monologues while smoking a cigarette. Her monologues are filled with memories of her husband and Janda’s feelings after he died. She confesses that she is unable to come to terms with his death and treasures every memory of him.

Klosinski died a year before SWEET RUSH was shot and the film also contains a part about the making of this film. After Janda’s first monologue Wajda cuts to a scene in which Janda reads out Iwaszkiewicz’s story to him and they both decide how it should be filmed. Then Wajda goes back to this storyline after Bogus’ death. Marta, played by Janda, wants to escape the scene and be Janda, the actress, again. This structure perfectly underlines the theme of the film: longing for a never-ending love that is interrupted by death. SWEET RUSH plays like a celebration of death on many levels.

Like in all of his films, Wajda presents the effects of historical events occurring in Poland such as war and communism on contemporary Polish society. The subject of historical events is very subtle in SWEET RUSH. It is never mentioned directly but the consequences of war are still present in the minds and feelings of the characters. Marta’s sons died in the Warsaw Uprising and she is unable to come to terms with their death. She says, “There are so many young people living today. And yet they are not living.” She is unable to comprehend why their sons had to die and she is trying to learn how to continue living when they are not living.

“Sweet Rush” is a subtle and touching story of impossible love and, at the same time, as the director puts it himself: “love coming too late and death coming always too early.”