Trauma is like a boomerang – it returns at the least expected moments. Most often when we try to sleep, but all the thoughts persistently bang on our head. Maybe then it is better not to dream at all? – you will ask. Unresolved trauma remains with us even when we don’t hang up the dream catcher, as Klara, the heroine of Justyna Mytnik’s Wet Monday, is aware. However, her sisterly strength helps her find the courage to fight for herself.
Justyna Mytnik’s concept for the film is unique, because here she weaves the tales of the Easter season into the construct of women witches, who do not use their magic at all for unholy purposes, but to fight for their self-determination, dignity and to settle accounts with their difficult past. It’s a tale of the ’00s, when you hung Bravo posters on your walls, turned on your computer only rarely, and spent most of your time outside with friends. However, this is not a candy-colored fairy tale of the genre of those beyond the mountains, beyond the forests and the seven rivers. It’s dirty backyards, old blocks of flats, sister’s clothes, and pepper spray “in case…”. The heroines in Wet Monday are roguish, rebellious, have cigarettes instead of scepters, and have swapped long dresses with many layers of tulle for short tops. However, they are also fragile, at times broken, though full of strength, which they bestow on each other, because in the end one for all and all for one. This layering of their characters is unique because it gives us flesh-and-blood heroines rather than flat and duplicated schemes.
It is gratifying to see such voices in the #girlpower trend, such as that of Justyna Mytnik. I recall the film Colossal, directed by Nacho Vigalondo, which could be seen during the 10th Netia OFF CAMERA a few years ago. Gloria’s (Anne Hathaway) way of coping with life’s problems was to metaphorically transform herself into a monster, ravaging the streets of Seoul. Both Vigalondo and Mytnik sensitively narrate the most difficult things in a very symbolic way. When Klara (Julia Polaczek), at the urging of Diana (Weronika Kozakowska), finds the courage to confront her nightmares, she transforms herself into a sword-wielding knight and discovers the pieces of a lost puzzle that she had quite pushed out of her memory. Each new piece brings her closer and closer to the truth of what happened on last year’s Easter Monday, but the clock is ticking and the next one is only a week away. Two witches are not enough for the Sabbath but add Klara’s sister Marta (the wonderfully charismatic Nel Kaczmarek) to the two, and you get a magically powerful sisterly triangle, which with its spells is able to deal with any of the traumas, because as it turns out, unfortunately, there is more than one.
It seems that the scariest thing in this entire film is that brutally real family scene at the Easter dinner, when the worst of the stereotypes and nasty slogans are hammered into traumatized women and girls, without realizing that one of them is Klara sitting at the table. When will we, as a society, finally replace the double standards and the “after all, it’s about them and not us” attitude with “what if it happened to me or my loved ones”? Perhaps then we will look at the world outside of us with more sensitivity and compassion, and we will have fewer aspects to disenchant. But when something so terrible happens to us, let’s not be afraid to ask for help – 116 111 (Polish number) is a helpline for children and young people, where you can get support anonymously and free of charge.
The film Wet Monday (directed by Justyna Mytnik) is screened in the Polish Feature Film Competition during the 18th Mastercard OFF CAMERA.
Kinga Majchrzak