I predict that by the time you will finish reading this post, you will want to know more about Pawel Pawlikowski and see all his films. My own research led me into a Pawlikowski internet black hole. With every quote, he become more intriguing. He follows his nose and curiosities like few others. He never seems driven by commercial goals and he has been known to drop projects when he felt a film was out of his creative control.
‘I stayed an amateur who needed to live a bit in order to make films. I don’t need to be on the set and just keep churning out films. For me, each film, each script is like a little journey in itself, and I’m reinventing the wheel.’
He was born in Warsaw to a doctor father and a ballerina mother and immigrated to England with his mother when he was 14. As his character Ida, Pawlikowski grew up Catholic, to find out as an adult that he had Jewish relatives who died in Auschwitz. He took a directorial break when his Russian wife was diagnosed with cancer and later died. The following five years he spent teaching at the National Film School in the UK and looking after his children before they graduated.
He is a not a stranger to acclaim. After his academic stint as an Oxford Brookes fellow, he started his filmmaking career as a documentary filmmaker in British television. He was awarded at Sundance and Toronto for his first feature, Last Resort. His next one, My summer of love, won a BAFTA for best British film, and gave Emily Blunt her acting break.
After his break, he returned to filmmaking with The Woman in the fifth, a failed biopic set in Paris staring Ethan Hawke. Ida started with the idea from the idea that he felt needed to go back to Poland.
‘I needed Warsaw because it’s so clearly shaped by history. It’s a place of simplicity and coherence. And that’s where I am in my life.’
Ida, of course, ended up winning many awards and recognition. But Pawlikoski almost seems to prefer it if it remained a small arthouse film that people engage with on its level. ‘Now it’s become a big political thing, because that’s what Oscar buzz does to people’s brains,’ he says when interviewed by The Atlantic magazine.
Is that enough to ignite your curiosity just a little bit? Let’s explore Pawlikowski’s beautiful film together on the 16 October. Buy your tickets now.