What: a Polish documentary film brought to Ann Arbor by this weekend’s annual Polish Film Festival
When: Saturday, November 5, 2:40pm
Where: State Theater
Tickets: free with reservation on the State Theater website [click here]
Simona is a documentary about the life of Simona Kossak, a Polish scientist and environmental activist. Based on what little I could discern from Google-translated Polish film reviews, Kossak, who was descended from a long line of famous Polish painters, was rejected by her family and chose to seclude herself in Poland’s primeval Białowieża Forest for the greater part of her life. There, she studied animal behavior and advocated for the preservation of the forest’s natural environment. The film explores Kossak’s eccentric life through the lens of her great niece, Ida Matysek, using photographs taken of Kossak by her life partner, Lech Wilczek. I hope the English subtitles for the film do Kossak’s inspiring story justice, and I look forward to learning about what seems like a magical life spent in one of the world’s oldest–and most threatened–forest environments.
