The disappearance of a child is fertile ground for drama. Yet director Marta Minorowicz (who co-wrote the film with Piotr Borkowski) sets events in Illusion at the point where characters who have experienced such loss have drifted into a state of ennui and are now almost going through the motions of grief.
The shock caused by the disappearance of Karolina, teenage daughter of schoolteacher Hanna (Agata Buzek) and doctor Piotr (Marcin Czarnik), has begun to fade. There is no indication how much time has passed since the disappearance, but this is typical for a film in which hard facts are a secondary consideration. The police are considering wrapping up their investigations and the private investigator hired by the parents has had no results. Although Piotr feels they should move forward in their lives Hanna continues to be affected by her daughter’s absence but the options for action are dwindling.
Hanna has become accustomed to being telephoned by people claiming to have been visited by Karolina in their dreams and, although she agrees to accompany a convicted murderer who claims to be responsible also for Karolina’s disappearance to the rumoured site of the murder, it is with little belief anything will be discovered.
Yet Hanna may be experiencing mental illness due to her loss- becoming fixated on someone outside the school window and engaging in rituals and finding significance in odd events. People with Erotomania are convinced another person is infatuated with them. Similarly, Hanna seems to be bending reality to suit her convictions – a discovery of a photograph of Karolina in an unlikely place is taken as proof she still lives. Hanna also indulges in rituals – collecting buttons that match those on Karolina’s coat and setting a place for her at the dinner table- as if to conjure her daughter back into the household.
The nature of the illusion in the title is never specified. It may be the hope Karolina will reappear is illusionary or perhaps the possibility life can return to normal after such a trauma is a pipe dream. There is an artificial aspect to the film itself. It is hard to take seriously a tactic used by the police involving a clairvoyant, intended to justify prolonging their investigation or to secure a confession (the actual reason is left vague).
Despite the potentially melodramatic subject director Minorowicz avoids grand emotion preferring an atmosphere of weary endurance and resignation. This is best reflected in Agata Buzek’s remarkable performance. Dignified but shell-shocked she stumbles through the film like a survivor of a natural disaster. Buzek is allowed a single moment to demonstrate the depth of Hanna’s anguish – when the extent of a sacrifice by her husband becomes apparent Hanna is reduced to an incoherent howling so intense it is hard to be sure if she is crying or laughing hysterically.
A further interpretation of the title is that reality itself may be an illusion. At key point in the film Hanna apparently develops psychic powers and becomes able to guide the police to a crime scene and suspect. It is, to put it mildly, a bizarre plot twist and gives rise to the possibility Minorowicz may be mocking the expectations of the audience, especially as the outcome of Hanna’s intervention is close to a very dark joke rather than a cathartic conclusion.
Despite having the format of a thriller, the slender plot means Illusion works best as a study of a character coping with extreme grief. The alienating style of presentation, however, makes it difficult to engage with the film emotionally making Illusion intriguing rather than involving.
KinotekaPolish Film Festival 2023 takes place in venues across London 9 March – 27 April. For further information and tickets:https://kinoteka.org.uk/
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Bending reality
