Być jak Kazimierz Deyna – ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’
1977 . A village deep in the countryside of PRL Poland. The villagers gather round a television in a bar to watch Poland play a World Cup qualifier. Meanwhile, a woman is in labour. Kazimierz Deyna scores direct from a corner kick, as the woman gives birth to a boy.
Being Kazimierz Deyna – Kazik is born as Deyna scores
Naturally, the football-mad father names his child ‘Kazimierz’ (Kazik) after his hero. But this is hardly a film about football, so don’t expect a Polish version of ‘Gregory’s Girl’ or ‘When Saturday Comes’. ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’ is a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age film. It turns out that Kazik can’t really play football, and is more interested in Polish literature. ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’ will therefore appeal more to fans of ‘Billy Elliot’ than to those of ‘Escape to Victory’.
To be honest, much of the background to the film simply doesn’t ring true. Unlike England, Spain or Italy, Poland isn’t the football-mad nation it is portrayed as being.
‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’ gives the impression of being a ‘woman’s’ film, and naturally enough the director is a woman, Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz. And unlike the traditional American coming-of-age films, in which the hero rejects a conservative background to taste the forbidden fruits of life, young Kazik goes in very much the opposite direction. Kazik choses good marks at school, book learning, and marrying a nice well-educated girl over escaping to England. Kazik seems everything a stereotypical middle-class Polish mother would want from her son, and therefore makes an unlikely role-model for more rebellious natures.
On the positive side, the film beautifully chronicles life in the fag-end of the PRL, and the ‘wild’ capitalist years that followed. If anyone is interested in the ‘true’ nature of life the ‘wrong’ side of the iron curtain towards the end of the cold war, then this gentle, nostalgic comedy is a ‘must see’. Ordinary life, as portrayed in ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’, appears materially poorer, yet somehow far more human and innocent, in those times than it does today.
‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’ opened in Poland on March 1st, 2013, and in the United Kingdom on March 13, with English subtitles. The film might be of great interest to English people interested in Polish life towards the end of the previous century. Unfortunately, few or any will see it, as little or no publicity material has appeared in English.
‘Być jak Kazimierz Deyna’ – ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’, 2013, directed by Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz, starring Marcin Korcz as ‘Kazik’, Przemysław Bluszcz as Kazik’s Dad and Gabriela Muskała as Kazik’s Mum.
The Szczecianin’s verdict: 6/10 a nostalgic comedy portraying life in rural Poland at the end of the twenty-first century. Not recommended for football fans.
Marcin Korcz ‘Kazik’ in ‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’
Przemysław Bluszcz – ‘Kazik’s Dad’ in ‘Being Kazimierz Deyn
‘Being Kazimierz Deyna’ trailer
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