Emma Friedman-Cohen

“The Power and Control Over Intimacy” From Cannes and Telluride nominee Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek comes a fiction film that takes the form of a first-time filmmaker’s documentary. 'My Friend the Polish Girl' borrows from cinéma vérité and video bloggers to create a rare naturalism in style and performance. The fiction film watches as an experimental documentary told through the eyes (and lens) of amateur filmmaker Katie, an American rich kid following Alicja, an erratic unemployed Polish actress. Set in a post- Brexit-vote London, Katie’s colonising, disruptive presence in Alicja’s life mirrors the treatment of migrants in the UK: Welcomed, used, then discarded. A raw, sexual, and visually brash film exploring the abusive power and control over someone’s intimacy.