Fugue (2018) is an awards-winner Poland, Czech Republic, and Sweden-produced drama and mystery thriller that evokes the social taboos around motherhood and the pressure on women to accept maternity without hesitation or reflection, as though the biological capacity of giving birth means that every woman should be willing to be a mother.
The movie centers on Alicja, who suffers from memory loss and has rebuilt her own free-spirited way of life. Two years later, she returns to her former family to assume against her will her role as wife, mother, and daughter. Her estranged husband and son do not recognize this woman who looks familiar and yet behaves like a stranger. Feelings of alienation, love, and revelations rekindle her interior flame.
Agnieszka Smoczynska has been the director of Fugue (2018). She is known for the biography-drama The Silent Twins (2022), nominated for the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the awards-winner fantasy and horror The Lure (2015), the segment “The Kindler and The Virgin” in the horror anthology The Field Guide to Evil (2018), and some episodes in the Netflix TV series Warrior Nun (2020–2022) and 1983 (2018).
Gabriela Muskala, an awards-winner actress, plays the main role in the film and has also been the writer of the screenplay. Lukasz Simlat, Malgorzata Buczkowska, Piotr Skiba, Halina Rasiakówna, Zbigniew Walerys, Dariusz Chojnacki, Iwo Rajski, and Klara Bielawka complete the main cast.
Fugue (2018) has had an extensive film festival run that started with its premiere at the International Critics’ Week section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the Critics’ Week Grand Prize. It has collected many more awards including Discovery of Year –for the writer Gabriela Muskala– at the Polish Film Awards, the Méliès d’Argent for Best Feature-Length Film at the Sitges Film Festival, and Best Film, Best Cinematography, and the Crystal Star Elle at the Polish Film Festival. It has also been part of festivals around the globe in 2018 and 2019 including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, New Horizons Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, BEAST International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Bogota International Film Festival, Athens Avant Garde Film Festival, AFI Fest, Glasgow Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival, and many more.
The movie has achieved mainly positive reviews. The Krakow Post said “Smoczynska‘s self-sustaining talent is capable of shining with its own light even without the sequins from her daring debut effort“, adding however that it “could crush the hopes of the viewers pursuing extravagance or originality at any cost”.
Now, Fugue (2018) is arriving in American theaters opening in Los Angeles on March 10 and in NYC on March 31, 2023.
Watch the official international trailer for Fugue (2018).
