"I just wanted to let you know I loved the film. I found it very moving, and rich in the way it moves through so many layers, themes (gentrification, home, post WWll, aging, family, storytelling, gardening, pleasure, struggle, political and personal change...). It feels like a privilege to be let into these people's lives from such an intimate perspective. Aesthetically I liked its spaciousness, rhythm, sound, the use of still images, the quietness of the filmmaker's "voice"... Thank you! All the best, Vida"
ABOUT THE FILM - A VIEW FROM OUTSIDE
The idea for this film's narrative starting point became more concrete after watching the Austrian film "The End of Neubacher Project" by Marcus Carney. It's a story about a young auteur-filmmaker going back to the home and history of his Carinthian grandparents, discovering their unbroken Nazi-attitude. In this case I wanted to make a film's journey in the opposite direction and to film a story about the life of my Polish grandparents. Since I emigrated to Austria twenty years ago, this is also a 'homecoming story'.
When our family received the message on the end of the tenancy of Maria and Tadeusz, we had to realize that a place we had called "Home" is in danger - a place where not only most of our family grew up, but a place that had hosted our childhood time and many good and bad moments. It was the place we had grown 'into' and that had become attached to us as nothing else - we had to come to terms with the fact that this place could possibly vanish for ever. This feeling was unacceptable.
My mother and I had already moved out from that flat many years ago, but for our oldest ones, Maria and Tadeusz this place meant not only up to 66 years of memories - it was truly present in their life every day, ever since.
It became clear to me, there were two points that had to be portrayed. First of all I had to document our home with all its personal history attached, and secondly I had to try to change up the mind of the new landlord. It all started in August 2010.
The initial concept for the film was for a documentary essay of 30 minutes. But as unknown family-stories from the past unveiled during the shoot, it became clear to shift the initial concept towards a more classic documentary narration that could be accessible to a wider audience, although some off-text-based parts were kept from the essayist phase of the film.
The shoot was an on-going endeavor and in 2011 it was possible to rise funding through the Austrian Ministry of Art and Education, that was open to support a Poland-focused project dealing also with the Austrian past in a rather direct way.
In-between my own investigative approaches to find out who the new owner was, progressed, but to talk to this person's conscience proved simply impossible. The (wealthy) polish householder (with a German name) was hiding behind her company that consisted only of a post-box and some attached lawyers. These ones effectively protected her from any kind of confrontation by executing her will to the extremes. Therefore it was never possible to confront her with the consequences of her actions - that two people might loose their health or even life through her psychological pressure and the missing of any kind of empathy towards them - two old and sick, helpless people.
Having grown up and being educated in socially protective Austria since 1990, I am still polish while having an outside perspective on Poland itself. I was wondering how could people of this age get thrown out from their apartment? Of course there is a law for tenant protection, but it is made in a way, that if somebody wants to evict another person, he can do that. One of quibbles is to state that the owner himself wants to live in the flat. In this case he has to provide a substitute flat to the tenant - but there is no clear rule when he has to do that, regarding the end of contract. He can basically show up on the last day of the tenancy with a substitute flat of the size of 10m2 per person and if one hasn't cleared the flat yet, a court case for expulsion can follow. It is obvious that this is not acceptable for the sensibilities of old people. Especially taking in consideration that many old people in Poland are so poor, that affording a lawyer is just a totally abstract concept.
During the polish socialist period flats were distributed centrally by the state, same as Maria received her flat. There was private property, but one didn't have any rights for it. So for example the owner of a house couldn't live in his place. People were used to live in one flat for decades, which gave them a sense of security.. In the 90s the rights were turned around and ownership is highly protected now. This led to a highly aggressive situation between fresh owners and old tenants.