Director Grzegorz Zariczny talks about “Waves” #KVIFF2016

July 8, 2016

Director Grzegorz Zariczny talks about "Waves" #KVIFF2016 fredfilmradio

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Grzegorz Zariczny, director of Waves from the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Grzegorz Zariczny, Polish filmmaker with a documentary backgrounds, had the world premiere of his first fiction feature film in Karlovy Vary this year. He is also a man of a few words – although that might be the language barrier. Nevertheless, in those few words, he manages to encapsulate some of the spirit of his film Waves.

We caught up with Zariczny just after one of the screenings of the film. Upon asking him how it went, he replied “well, you know, it’s dark in the cinema so you don’t know what people are doing,” before voicing his disappointment at one person that walked out during the screening (out of a full house.)

A film that treasures realism, it is still surprising to hear that Waves originated from an earlier documentary short made last year and featuring the two leading non-professional actresses of Waves as themselves. We also talk about the importance of the setting of the film, a smaller town in Poland dressed in post-Communist greys, and find out that it took the director two years of working on the film before shooting began.

WAVES: Ania and Kasia are hairstyling apprentices spending time between school, shifts at a salon in a deserted Kraków housing complex, and home where relations with parents are far from harmonious. The story of two likably headstrong girls on their way to adulthood was shot with an emphasis on authenticity, and it can’t help but recall the best work of the Czechoslovak New Wave.