Aquello que amamos

Adolescent love and politics may not seem to mix, but it does in this brilliant film that uses as a background the Gdansk shipyard strike. Revolt is everywhere, in young people seeking refuge in Rock music, in individuals seeking freedom from the dire economic conditions facing Poland in the 1980's. Yet, it is also a film about love of country, love of family, and love, plain and simple, even if discord seems to reign everywhere. It is from this discord that Borcuch manages to crank up the film's suspense and tie together episodes that on the surface seem disparate. Each one of them meshes into the other to form a canvas that speaks of life's triumph over calamity. For instance, Janek's discovery of love, of the self, of the other, and its imminent loss fostered by divergent political views is more than a mirror to Janek's father encounter with death and sorrow, or to Poland's political woes. This film is at once Bergmanesque because of its depth,and Nouvelle Vague because of the way it maintains youth's focus on life. Kudos well deserved.

This film is about an adolescent man, who forms a punk band with his brother and his classmates, in an uncertain political climate.

"All That I Love" is about an adolescent man called Janek. We are told of the loves of his life, namely his parents, his grandmother, his band and his girlfriend. There are lots of subplots in each category, but they all seem to lead to nowhere. Some subplots are brought up and never mentioned again, such as Janek's fling with Sokolowska, or what happened to Basia's father. It would have been a lot more satisfying for these subplots to be developed.

I was hoping to see a build up to a breathtaking finale, but unfortunately events are just plainly told, and there is no emotional roller-coaster. In addition, "All That I Love" lacks a clear focus of what it wants to tell. Is it really about life in politically uncertain times? Is it about social unrest? Is it about love, or a combination of all these things? One thing that opened my eyes was the explicit scenes. I thought Poland was a conservative country, and I was surprised that the beach scene was so explicit. Maybe this is the real statement about changes in the Polish society.