Poland It is the country with the least rights LGTBIQ+ of the European Union and occupies the 41st place on the continentahead only of countries like Russia, Türkiye and Azerbaijan. This is data from the 2023 Rainbow Europe annual index. Now, with the government of Donald Tusk Some changes have come that aim to correct this shameful reality. And coinciding with the announcement of the inclusion of trans and intersex people in the Armed Forces of that country and with the celebration of Trans October, the film is released Woman of…by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert, which reviews more than forty years of pain and discrimination from fiction.
The story of a trans woman who lives almost half of her life as a man in a provincial city and decides to take the step towards recognition as a woman also serves as a reflection of the filmmakers’ the transition that Poland has experiencedwhere society embraced the Solidarity union to overthrow communism. “That same society that fought for freedom and that now rejects conquests that have long ago become rights in the rest of the Western world.”
One hundred queer people
“I feel more connected to the sidewalk in front of me,” Adrzej confesses in a consultation with his doctor, who tells him that this is unacceptable and recommends that he ‘go whoring’. It is the result of a deeply homophobic and transphobic world for decades, which has changed practically nothing and for which a film like this is an invaluable advance. The authors, who have fled victimhood and violence, opted for a subtle love story to narrate that journey towards freedom of Aniela Wesoly.
They did not find a trans woman in Poland who could play the main character, because the training of actresses and actors is not open in the country to people who leave the binary system, so the filmmakers decided to work with a cisgender actress, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik. Yes, they were able to include dozens of trans people in the team – who not only play themselves, but also develop other roles – and LGTBIQ+, all of whom had appeared at the castings and who became part of the artistic teams and also technical.
For Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert it was essential not only to give visibility to the Polish LGBTIQ+ community with this fictional story, but also to incorporate these people in the development of the entire project. So, Woman of… It features more than a hundred queer people in supporting roles, in addition to those who were hired in the writing and directing departments.
Equal marriage
The actress Joanna Kulig gives life to Adrzej’s wife, companion on this journey, on her path to a free life as a trans woman. It is a character, like Aniela’s, that is born from reality, from many interviews with trans people who told their own experiences to the filmmakers. “We met several couples like them,” explain Szumowska and Englert, who reflect in their film a reality that still exists today.
The treatment that the character follows is very expensive and To get a legal identity as a woman he has to sue his own parents and divorce his wife, even though he loves her.. At the time when this fiction takes place, Poland did not have, nor does it have today, equal marriage, so the situation of the character of Woman of… It is not very different from what thousands of people experience in reality.
A decent life
Today, Poland lacks legislation on gender identity and international organizations have recommended that the country correct this absence, approve equal marriages and end the nonsense of zones “free of LGBT ideology.” Donald Tusk’s government has begun the path of change, working on laws that condemn and punish the marginalization or attacks on LGTBI people.
While these are taking shape, the film by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert is a first step in the equal recognition of transsexual and LGTBI people. “We hope our film reflects the spirit of our times and provokes discussions that help overcome mistrust and show the truth about being transgender,” the filmmakers said. “We believe it will also help empower young people who identify as trans but have afraid to say it in public. Above all, we hope that it will persuade the Polish authorities to amend the law and guarantee a decent life for these people.
#Woman #life #trans #woman #homophobic #transphobic #country #Europe
