Body – Cialo (2015)

Directed by: Malgorzata Szumowska | 90 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Janusz Gajos, Maja Ostaszewska, Justyna Suwala, Marcel Borowiec, Ewa Dalkowska, Ryszard Dolinski, Roman Gancarczyk, Malgorzata Hajewska, Ewa Kolasinska, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Ada Piekarska, Adam Woronowicz, Tomasz Ziek

In the opening scene of Poland’s ‘Body’, a police detective arrives at the spot where a hapless bum has hanged himself from a tree. The man is not impressed. He continues the duties of such a case. The dead man is stripped of his cord by a police assistant and carefully placed on the ground. The coroner determines the time of death and, together with the detective, examines whether the deceased has no other wounds that could indicate a crime. When this is not the case, his work seems to be done. The men are still talking for a while when the corpse stands up and quietly walks away.

The whole situation suggests an absurdist film. But director Malgorzata Szumowska, who won a Silver Bear for best director with ‘Body’ in Berlin, takes the accompanying disruption further than just absurdistically. Disruption here equals (physical) detachment. The characters in ‘Body’ have lost contact with their own bodies. The nameless detective (played by Janusz Gajos) neglects his bulky body by ingesting large amounts of food and alcohol. His daughter Olga (Justyna Suwala) is looking for it in abstinence. Her mother’s death led to an eating disorder.

After a suicide attempt, the young woman ends up in a care home for anorexic patients. There she is helped by the sterile therapist Anna (Maja Ostaszewska). The woman lost her only child a few years earlier. Since then, she has put her feelings on hold, as have their physical manifestations. She lives with her Great Dane, with whom she shares everything. Her free time, her food and her bed. It cannot be disguised that she is especially lonely.

Due to their physical detachment, the characters are also estranged from each other. The relationship between father and daughter is complicated, partly due to their own high-rise boundaries and the inability to bring them down. They actually live on two different worlds. Their problems are not unique. The world around them is equally futureless. The cases that the detective investigates often excel in atrocity. Society is in bad shape. Detachment leads to a lack of identity formation, affection and, ultimately, chaos.

It’s a bleak view of today’s life. All the more beautiful are those contrasting moments when the main characters are allowed to experience a moment of happiness. And see themselves or each other for what they are. There are no more than three, but those moments express so much beauty that hope for humanity must not be given up yet.