Toxaemia

Even an old man has the right to love... Or does he?

Team

synopsis

Ada, an insecure history student, meets two men: Jan, her young neighbour who asks her out on a date, but whom she refuses due to her lack of self confidence, and Tadeusz, an 87-year-old eminent insurgent from the Second World War, about whom she hopes to write a breakthrough article. At first she is impressed by Tadeusz’s wisdom and knowledge, as well as touched by his dramatic war experiences. Things get complicated when the old man falls in love with Ada and starts stalking her. Ada decides to use Jan to discourage Tadeusz. Jan mistakes her sudden attachment for love, while the old man’s feelings turn into an obsession. Ada, cornered and helpless, seeks help from Jan, but the young man realizes she deceived him and takes Tadeusz’s side. Ada discovers she had feelings for Jan when it’s already too late. She realises she can only count on herself. She decides to get rid of Tadeusz from her life. All this leads to a tragic, yet hopeful ending.

Director’statement

Toxaemia is a film about human weaknesses. About how our need for appreciation and admiration can sometimes lead to dramatic consequences. This incapacity of the characters to build normal relationships and their disbelief that they are worthy of love and attention leads them to grab every bit of attention they can get – searching for it in the wrong places. The relationships become toxic and this results in immense solitude. Ada, paralysed by these incapacities, needs to face her fears and start living. Her fears are embodied in Tadeusz, who in her eyes is a perverse 90-year-old, but he is also a tragic figure – a romantic war hero, who falls due to his own obsession and succumbs to the weakness of his age. From his perspective Ada is his last breath before dying and he desperately clings to her. I do not want to be moralistic in the depiction of the characters. I want to understand them. They are deeply flawed, but at the same time likeable, and I want to show their weaknesses and humanity by portraying them both in a tender and in a cruel light. The story is very much how I see Poland today – Ada is a metaphor of modern Poland, stuck between historical complexes, martyrdom, the cult of the dead, and the need to be modern. New Poland has to get rid of old Poland to start living, just like Ada has to get rid of Tadeusz.

TFL PROGRAMME:

AdaptLab 2014

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