Polish actress likes city, but not PIFF audience

The debut film of Marta Honzatko, Black Thursday, was selected for the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF). She said: "I not very happy with the audience here as I feel that they should have switched off their cell phones while watching the movie. The door was opening again and again, which was a bit disturbing."u00a0

She said people should sit till the end of the movie. She said when the names started scrolling on the screen at the end, people started walking off. She said she was disappointed by the audience.u00a0The movie story is based on the riots by shipyard workers that erupted in Polish port cities and the real-life story of Brunon Drywa, a shipyard worker who died tragically during the riots from a gunshot wound in his back.u00a0

The leading role of Drywa is played by Michal Kowalski, who is accompanied by an all-star Polish cast, including Honzatko, Marta Kalmus, Krystyna Janda, Wojciech Pszoniak and Piotr Fronczewski.u00a0The movie is directed by Antoni Krauze and produced by Kazimierz Beer and Miroslaw Piepka.u00a0

Before the movie started, Marta said she was very nervous as it was the first time the movie was shown in the country. She said she is always tense when the movie starts.u00a0"I came to learn a lot about the history of Poland while doing the movie," she said. "Also, the experience to play the role of mother of three children was different and good."

The film was shown at City Pride, Kothurd. "I liked the city though I still have not seen much of it," Honzatko said. "I also liked the Indian food, as it is different."u00a0Towards the end, the movie chooses to focus too much on the Dwyers as our primary identification point, letting Stefania's histrionic distress over her husband's disappearance dominate the last act.

Though her travails are fact-based, they turn the movie in a more conventional narrative direction than the earlier wider-canvas progress, inter-cutting staged and archival material. It does not help that Honzatko's turn is not the film's strongest.