"Koniec wakacji" ("The End of Holiday") is a coming of age story that serves a great purpose for teenage and adult audiences in a
significant manner. The holiday in question is a metaphor for a period in life where the fun and games of everything are drastically reduced,
giving room to problems, difficulties and unusual circumstances, and the adult world comes crashing into a teens life.
We follow the young and idealist Jurek (Marek Sikora), a fifteen-year-old who seems to be angrily fighting against the world around
him as he simply cannot deal with all the things that either happen with him or with the people around him. He's angry with bullies cowardly
attacking his peers who cannot defend themselves; he doesn't understand why his mother left home, and his dad (Józef Nalberczak) says
she was in a sanatorium and that she needed a time out of home. The two forms of solace that allow him some breathing time are taking care of
his pigeons, and the arrival of Elzbieta (Agata Siecinska), a beautiful girl who'll spend the holiday in the smalltown he lives (a weird place
without any attractives as it is mostly a coal mining area). But with first love comes new difficulties and plenty of things to learn about it
and about life. And off he goes rolling with the punches - as the romantic
affair swings back and forth, Jurek's biggest problem to solve is to find what happened to his mother, and slowly the family secrets will come to
life to make him grow up a little earlier than usual.
Here's a simple and safe kind of film that doesn't take itself neither the thematic so seriously as some films tend to do. It
is humored and dramatic, with a great balance between both genres. Jurek is an interesting teen character as he falls for the typical cliche of rebellious
and also innocent, but also there are some odd vibes as he can become a helpful soul who likes to help other people, and at the same time most
of his interactions with others are erratic, nervous and full of contempt like he's mad all of the time and insists on pushing people away. As he becomes
a wild contradiction of sorts, along with the great acting from the actor, it's a character that'll demand plenty of empathy
or you'll have to find some personal life parallels to identify with him, otherwise you'll just find him an annoying brat that never stops frowning his
face.
It's easy to fall for the film's appeal and how it treats the theme, despite being an overdone topic. The levity of most of its part,
and the tension from serious moments (like the coal mine accident, or when Jurek believes to have hurt one of the bullies who rolled down a
hill), are all greatly done. It's the kind of story that makes you reflect about the transition from the teen years to adulthood, the good and
bad experiences that comes with growing up and surviving through it all. But life it's not like the holiday's over and all you'll do is to be
destined to face bullies or face a difficult decision; it's more about how to retain a smooth and quieter demeanor when everything seems to
prepare you for toughening up, not allowing you to show (or have) a heart. It's all about time passages. 8/10.
