Two young artists engage in their first serious relationship, and it is full of raw emotion and intense physicality. But they struggle to find a language for a real connection. Tell Me What You Feel, the new feature from Polish director and curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw Łukasz Ronduda (Heart of Love, All Our Fears, Rave), world premieres in the Big Screen Competition of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Jan. 31. He wrote the screenplay with Agata K. Koschmieder.
Like his past narrative movies, Tell Me What You Feel, revolves around artists. In this case, they are Maria and Patryk, played by Izabella Dudziak and Jan Sałasiński, respectively. Patryk struggles to sell his paintings, while Maria, who has a well-off background, created Tear Dealer, an art project that lets poor people trade their tears, collected in vials, for money.
Through the two, Ronduda traces the struggles and aspirations of a generation hoping to be different from the past and actually being different. Loosely based on the experience of real-life young Polish artist Patryk Różycki and a female artist, the film explores modern love and relationships, including our time of “vulnerable masculinity,” as the filmmaker tells THR.
“Patryk is based on a real person, so is Maria. And the Tear Dealer project is real, too,” Ronduda shares. “But of course, the film is a synthesis. I am making fiction movies, so Tell Me What You Feel is a synthesis – creative fiction based on real inspirations.”
Tell Me What You Feel was produced by Natalia Grzegorzek at Koskino, in co-production with Documentary and Feature Film Studios (WFDiF), Silesia Film, EC1-Łódź and Fixafilm. It was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
“My film portrays contemporary, young Poles, who, by being deeply aware of their emotions and mental health, are bringing about a great social change,” notes a director’s statement. “However, their over-therapeutization significantly affects the way they build relationships. I wanted to take a closer look at this modern love, characterized by psychological awareness on one hand and confusion on the other.”
Concludes the filmmaker: “I am also interested in how this focus on emotions gives an illusion of removing social and economic borders between lovers. Moreover, the film explores the topic of a new ‘vulnerable’ masculinity, open to emotions, tears, and feelings.”
THR can now exclusively reveal the first trailer for the movie that teases some of the awkwardness of love and sex that not only Polish audiences are likely to recognize. Check out the Tell Me What You Feel trailer below.
