Edi

Edi (2002), directed and co-scripted by Piotr Trzaskalski, was shown at the Rochester Polish Film Festival at the Little Theatre.

Henryk Golebiewski plays Edi (pronounced "Eddie"), an intelligent and gentle intellectual, who has ended up literally and figuratively on the scrapheap--he collects scrap metal on the street. His business partner, Jureczek (played by Jacek Braciak) is neither intelligent nor particularly gentle. (The relationship between the two men reminded me of the relationship between George and Lennie in "Of Mice and Men.") The two live at the fringe of society, barely making enough money to keep a roof over their heads and liquor in their systems.

Two brutal gangsters--known only as "The Brothers," hire Edi to tutor their sister so that she will pass her high school examinations. The sister, Princess, played by Aleksandra Kisio, is attractive in a nubile adolescent way, and Edi falls in love with her. This love leads Edi to make two immense sacrifices for Princess--sacrifices that will change his life forever.

The film also stars the luminous Polish actor Malgorzata Flegel-Siedler as Krysia, a woman whose relationship with Edi provides us with his "back-story."

This is a sad film about bad things happening to a kind and gentle man. It's not cheerful or cheering, but it's serious, well made, and worth seeing.

There are two film communities that carry special expectations for me. One of them is Polish film. Its probably not fair, but Kieslowski and Polanksi seem to be more than film geniuses. They seem to reflect a certain manifest spirit of the people that is coherent and close to the surface. One gets the illusion that Poland is a place where ordinary motions and lives are easily revealed as lovely, wound with an attractive, unornamented motion.

So any Polish film comes to me with the expectation that it will be special. I have just the opposite expectation for Czech and Hungarian films for instance. I expect them to simply struggle.

This is a film that let me down for the only reason that it is Polish. If you do not know it, there are events that don't quite matter. The thing is a sort of meditation on the perfection of placement within flows of hopelessness. Its all about grace in motion, and does some superb work in conveying the story cinematically. For instance, there are many high overhead shots of our two junkpickers moving gracefully, usually through dank urban residue. These are complemented by similar drifting shots from the side, many with portals and revealing planes.

So the man with the eye surely know what he was doing; and he is successful in giving us pure visual language that gets to the heart of the thing. Its not nuanced, woven in any way, so after a bit you wonder if this is all: a canvas with no paint. So its the guy with the pen that seems to have decided that a simple tone is good enough. So what you end up with is something not worthy of Poland, an art film that can serve as a date movie is your date isn't deep enough to be interesting.

There are some story knots: the ex-girlfriend and his brother; the tales of a past untold; the small laughs about junk. But it could have been a film that mattered.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This film stands tall for its honest portrayal of humanity in the face of being used as a scape-goat. Edi deserves your attention - it will move you, make you angry, sad and possibly bring tears for both. It doesn't lapse into mere sentimentality however. A life-affirming experience. I watched it on DVD but relish the chance to see it on the big screen. The English sub-titles related the story without affecting continuity or plot, or removing any of the film's subtlety or nuances, found in its native Polish language.

The cinematography brought to life a Poland of two kinds - the harsh reality of city life and the pastoral beauty and salvation of the countryside. Poland's own transition since Solidarity seemed to be similarly mirrored. Edi's existence as an educated man forced into a seedy subculture in the city never compromises his own self-belief and therein the true hero lies. Wrongly accused of rape, his life is at the mercy of two crime-lords. Self-sacrifice as a means to redemption isn't Hollywood but that's where the humanity of Edi lies.

Well the moment you start watching a Polish movie you know that you will see some movie that is based on reality and not the usual Hollywood-crap that is coming to us. And how many little errors there might be in here, I'd rather wanna see this instead of X-Men number 1234. The story is about two men who are seeking for old used metal which they hope to sell and as the mob seems to be involved everywhere in East Europa, it's no different here as well as this gang is ruled by the two so-called brothers who have no mercy. And certainly not when they discover that their sister is pregnant of Edi. The sad thing is that Edi never has touched the girl but she is so in fear that she just names an easy victim and what then happens is the deepest humilation a man can have. Call it cinema verite or whatever, Edi is a beautiful piece of Polish cinema. Not the best in his sort but definitely worth watching!

This is film was simple, but amazing. It was showing they way that others live, we all don't not live in the same conditions. And at times, many of us complain about our living situations and are aware that we deserve much more. But to watch someone, who you knows they deserves more, but has so much content for his life is simple amazing. He has so much knowledge, so much that he is able to deal with the fact that the life with get dealt with, we should make the best of it.

Edi's strength show so many of us had to deal with the our complex situations, the one's we deal with everyday. And the one's we feel we cannot handle, it is best to just take on this situations with the knowledge that we have. And just deal with them as the pass us in our lives.