Old Film Festival: Meeting with Wojciech Smarzowski. Screening of the play “Treatment”

“Treatment” tells the story of Andrzej Majer (Bartłomiej Topa), a young and ambitious psychiatrist who decides on an unusual experiment — he voluntarily becomes a patient of a psychiatric hospital for three months. In this way, he wants to better understand his wards, their way of perceiving the world and the realities of the work of a psychiatrist. He only informs his supervisor, Prof. Walas, and the head of the department, Prof. Zimiński (Jerzy Łapiński), who warn him of the consequences of the experiment.

Majer, pretending to be a young engineer suffering from schizophrenia, finds himself in the room, where he meets, among others, the catatonic Nowakowski (Lech Dyblik) and Kowalski (Arkadiusz Jakubik), who react aggressively to the appearance of a new patient. The hero keeps detailed notes and observes both patients and the functioning of the hospital. His experience becomes a starting point for questions about the boundary between health and mental illness, the ethical consequences of psychological experiments, and the nature of the doctor-patient relationship. “The Cure” is a performance that combines a medical perspective with philosophical and social reflection. The director is Wojciech Smarzowski, and the cast includes Bartłomiej Topa, Jerzy Łapiński, Lech Dyblik and Arkadiusz Jakubik. The performance was honored with the Grand Prix of the Festival “Two Theaters” in 2002.

The meeting will be an opportunity to talk with Wojciech Smarzowski about the beginnings of his work, work on “The Curation”, television theater and the path that led him to the realization of the most important films, such as “Wedding”, “Bad House”, “Rose”, “Drogówka”, “Under the Mighty Angel”, “Volyn”, “Kler” and “Dom Dobry”.

We invite you to meet the artist, whose cinema has been taking up difficult social, historical and moral themes for years, it will also be an opportunity to get to know the less known, theatrical face of his work.