I'm Still Alive (2012)

• 66%
• 2012
• Peter van Houten

A poetic and visual portrait of the old Polish woman Jadwiga Kubis Waslicka. Her life coincided with the 20th century. The great movements of history, such as communism, capitalism and fascism, meant she had to roam Europe from Poland via Germany and the United Kingdom to Holland. Now she's back in her homeland, in Warsaw. She is old. Her body is decaying and she's basically waiting until the angels come to fetch her. The filmmaker is aware of Jadwiga's old age and approaching demise, but he also sees much beauty in her appearance. He juxtaposes her wrinkled face with the guilty Polish landscape. At the most intimate of moments, he does not look away and continues to seek beauty in fragility. The woman no longer leaves her house, but the filmmaker does. He brings images and sounds back that tell us things about her life, but without words. Images that mix the suffering from the past with the suffering now.