LESSONS OF LOVE

69-year-old Jola puts on elaborate make-up, while her husband spouts casual abuse in the background, how she never had much in her head and is basically worthless when it comes down to it. So Jola leaves Italy on a train bound for her native Poland. There, on the beach, she takes a trip down memory lane with her girlfriends: how she married the young man who got her pregnant, swore to care for him “in good times and in bad”, raised her six children and put up with punches, put-downs and her husband’s drinking problem. And now? Now she dresses elegantly, and takes singing and dance lessons. In the process, she meets a gentleman her age, Wojtek and the two strike up a friendship. But divorce, at her age? What will her family, her friends or the church say? Of course, one can just leave, everyone is free to choose, but is it the right move? It’s better to feel pain than nothing at all, as Woitek, jokes when he breaks his arm. Sprinkled with wonderful analogies, as well as a pinch of humour, the film tells of one woman’s self-emancipation in gentle images: of oppression in a toxic relationship, female self-esteem and the need for understanding, intimacy and connection.