Displaying items by tag: Bartosz Prokopowicz

NO PRESSURE/ Nic na sile

Poland, 2024, 111 minutes, Colour.

Anna Szymanczyk, Mateusz Janicki, Anna Seniuk, Artur Barcis.

Directed by Bartosz Prokopowicz.

No Pressure is a popular entertainment, the story of a Polish village where most people know one another, friendships, rivalries, celebrations, suspicions… The film was so popular that there was an immediate sequel with most of the central characters returning, It Takes a Village.

The central character here is a chef, brought up in the village, working very successfully in the city. News of her grandmother’s death and her getting time off, arriving and finding that the whole thing is a hoax, engineered by her grandmother to bring her home for some kind of contact (the grandmother hoping she will stay at home in the village.)

Oliwa is a strong character, devoted to her eccentric and hard cheese-making grandmother, but left alone to continue the work on the farm, reunite with her horse, treat the goats, including a birth…

The other central character is a local man with a daughter, an estranged wife, his father running a restaurant, rather tough in firing unsatisfactory chefs. There are misunderstandings, pretence identities, potential for romance, the young woman having to make decisions – you can take the girl out of the country but can’t take the country out of the girl!

There is enough going on, romantic complications, misunderstandings, the eccentric behaviour of the grandmother and the elderly sculptor who is in love with her.

Sequels spoiler anticipation: it begins with the wedding ceremony for grandmother and the sculptor – and leads to all kinds of mayhem and popular comedy.

1. A Polish village in the 2020s? The range of characters, interactions, cheesemaking and trade, financial difficulties, farms…? And the contrast with big city life, Chef in the large restaurant?
2. The situation, Oliwa, moving from the town, her success in the city, busy at work, skills in cooking, her boss? The news of her grandmother’s death, the noss and time off, leaving, driving, her car breaking down?
3. The effect of death, the grandmother, her character, in the coffin, lent by the priest, everybody present in mourning?
4. Oliwa’s reaction, everybody in the village in on the scheme, to bring Oliwa back home?
5. Oliwa, her relationship with her grandmother, the past, her mother’s own disappearance, her growing up, work with the goats, her favourite horse, the making of the cheese? Her grandmother’s disappearance, hiding with Jan, wanting her granddaughter to take over the work?
6. Oliwa, the personality, getting into the work, with the goats, the birth of the goat, her car and repairs, the friendships with people from the past, Matylda and her husband, meeting the two brothers, inseparable, their wives, the making of the moonshine?
7. The encounter with Kuba, his personality, his help, appearing and disappearing? The attraction? His daughter, his wife having left him? His wife’s travels? And the later revelation about her companion and partner? His father, opening the opening the restaurant? Sacking inefficient chefs? Oliwa and the friendship with the daughter?
8. Jan, sculptor, old friend? Shielding Halena? Her locking him in, his escape? His devotion to her?
9. Woytek, personality, music competition, place in the village, friendship with Kuba? Having to impersonate Kuba against Oliwa?
10. The financial situation, the grandmother and her debts, the herb garden? Kuba as her creditor? Her upset about the government banning her from making cheese? Kuba finding out the woman who reported her?
11. The buildup to the Festival, the singing and music?
12. Oliwa, learning the truth about people, going back to the city, the discussions with her boss, his realising she should return?
13. Happy endings, returning to the village, to Kuba, his daughter, the friendship made, her grandmother and Jan?
14. Everyone in readiness for the sequel, It Takes a Village?