Upon its release, the mystery and drama thriller Fugue (2018) became a little bit of an instant cult classic, in part for its extended festival run collecting a good amount of awards and nominations but also after hitting theaters in Slavic countries like Poland and the Czech Republic it became one of those stories that needed to be told. Now, being present on several streaming platforms worldwide, the movie is having a North American theatrical release from Dekanalog.
The movie tells the story of 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.
Fugue (2018) was written by its main star, Gabriela Muskala, who won the Best Actress awards for the role in several festivals, and directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska, 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 responsible for some episodes in the Netflix TV series Warrior Nun (2020–2022) and 1983 (2018).
Lukasz Simlat, Malgorzata Buczkowska, Piotr Skiba, Halina Rasiakówna, Zbigniew Walerys, Dariusz Chojnacki, Iwo Rajski, and Klara Bielawka complete the main cast.
Since its release, 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”.
Fugue (2018) premiered 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.
On March 10, 2023, Fugue (2018) premiered theatrically in the USA in Los Angeles, and today March 31 will open in NYC.
You can read our review for Fugue (2018) here. Also, watch the official trailer.
