Adrian Panek (director)
Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2025 (studio)
100 (length)
12 March 2025 (released)
08 March 2025
Maybe film viewers are getting spoilt but its rather unusual for a biopic not to have a few words after the film to add some more information about the subject. Not that it’s not absolutely clear what Simona Kossak did just maybe follow on bit.
That however my very minor personal issue with Simona Kossak, which is an absorbing true story of a gifted ecologist Simona (Sandra Dryymalska) who is contracted to do some research for the state, only to discover it's not quite what it seems. Folded into this is her relationship with her family and wildlife photographer Lech (Jakub Giersal).
Born into an old aristocratic family of successful painters Simona is out on limb as having no talent for painting or follow in the family tradition. This is a sense of frustration between her and her mother Elizbieta (Agata Kulesza) who seems to take any opportunity to humiliate her.
Simona’s talents lie with the sciences. Contracted to research the behaviour of Roe deer in the Bialowieza forest, ostensibly for conservation reasons. She’s given a dilapidated cabin to live in and share with Lech.
The pressures of her family don’t disappear when her mother comes to visit with her niece Joasia (Nika Wichlacz), whom she loves yet treated by disdain by her mother Gloria (Marianna Zydek) a bohemian who only has eyes on her inheritance.
What could be quite dry is a very well presented eco and family drama. Director Adrian Panek and co-writer Anna Kaminska keep the pace up well as the various intrigues of the corporate and government machinations fold into the latent power of the old families and their associations.
Trust is a core matter for Simona who is let down at various junctures by her family, lovers and employers - and academic old-boy network that creeks and reeks of sexism and condescension. To her credit she keeps going almost to the point of her own personal destruction.
Dryymalska is outstanding as Kossak coming across as assertive yet very vulnerable and at times naïve. Just as powerful is Kulesza in the deeply unsympathetic role of Elizbieta, though as her story develops there’s an understanding of her actions and the reasons.
Simona Kossak will be screened as part of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2025 at The Garden Cinema, London on 12 March 2025.
Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2025 takes place in venues across London and the UK 6 March to 25 April
For further information and tickets: https://kinoteka.org.uk/
