It is frantically gratifying to see the increasing presentation in film of women who are not passive and reliant on their fate but take it into their own hands to actively manage it. Promising. Young. Woman (directed by Emerald Fennell) awakened the audience’s desire for female protagonists who know what they want and are not afraid to reach for it. If you liked the character of Cassandra, just get to know Annette.  

Anette (Daisy Ridley) is married to Ben (Shazad Latif), for whom she left her job, city life, to whom she gave birth to two children and by whom she is very unhappy. Every day she puts on the mask of a perfect mother so as not to expose herself to the outbreak of his wrath. Ben is a writer who is very fond of women – all except his own wife. Therefore, whenever he can, he runs away from home, abandoning all responsibilities.   

Such an opportunity comes when their daughter – Mathilda – is hired as an actress in a costume film, and since she is underage, Ben becomes her self-appointed guardian on the set. There he meets – Alicie (Matilda’s Anna Ingrid Lutz, who starred in Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge, which competed for the “Making Way” Main Competition award at the 11.NETIA OFF CAMERA), with whom he momentarily falls in love and for whom he wants to leave his wife. However, it seems that the woman also reciprocates his feelings. But is she really? 

Magpies – these birds are mistakenly considered thieves, but instead they are birds that fall in love for life and take the loss of a mate very badly. In addition, they easily chase away other species whenever they feel threatened and are very good hunters. Anette, although she doesn’t look it, is just such a magpie, who has launched a hunt to catch her husband’s infidelity. In love with the actress, the man loses his vigilance and begins to lose his steps. And this only turns his wife on even more, who follows his trail with fantastic class and charm. Unaware of her deviousness, we feel grief as we watch Ben treat Annette disrespectfully. How he lies to her, and when we discover his past betrayals, we only ask ourselves “why does she continue to want to be with such a scoundrel?”.   

We need heroines like Cassandra and Annette, who, although seemingly fragile, show their great strength and do not give in to violent guys and write their own stories.   

The film Magpie to be seen at the 18th Mastercard OFF CAMERA as part of the Eye for an Eye section, whose partners are zondacrypto and Rzeczpospolita. 

Kinga Majchrzak