Kasia Roslaniec was born in Poland in 1980. She graduated from Warsaw Film School and also studied at the Wajda School. Her graduation film, Mall Girls, won Best Debut Director at the Polish Film Festival. It was released theatrically in Poland and topped the box office for three weeks.
Baby Blues
is playing AFI as part of the World Cinema program.
Women and Hollywood: Please give us your description of the film playing at AFI.
Kasia Roslaniec: It’s titled Baby Blues and it’s a girlish picture about girl’s power. I wasn’t conscious of that making this movie but now, in
this moment, answering this question it’s what I’m thinking. Baby Blues is a story of egoism and a border between egoism and loneliness. It’s a
story about how lonely you must be to make a decision to give a birth to a child to “have somebody to love” and at the same time how egotistic you must
be…from the same reasons.
WaH: What drew you to this story?
KR: It was a serious story about a teen girl who put her baby in the locker at a railway station. In fact it wasn’t her, but her best friend, but during
the police interview she took it on herself. Anyways, it was a beginning, but also I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make such a gray picture — both of the girls
were from very low social environments — poor and without parents. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it and then after a couple of months I found an
article in some newspaper called “The Youngest European Moms.”
This article was about how fashionable it was to be a young mom like Britney Spears or Nicole Richie (it was at that time) and how cute it was to be
pregnant at all, like Angelina Jolie. I also read in there a teen’s opinion that it was cool to have a baby because you can buy a cute clothes at H&M
for your kid. And that they want to have a baby to have somebody to love and somebody who loves you.
WaH: What was the biggest challenge?
KR: To find an actress, and all young actors, but mostly the main one. It took me 7 months. And then, to give her this feeling of not being separate
anymore, because you are a mom and at the same time a feeling of missing something you don’t know.
WaH: What advice do you have for other female directors?
KR: I’m not very good at giving advice. I also can’t see a big difference between advice for female or male directors. I’ve never heard
special advice for myself because I’m a woman. But it doesn’t mean I can’t and I don’t want to see differences between male and female directors. I think
women are more intuitional, (when men are more serious), and we should just follow that intuition.
WaH: What are the biggest challenges and or opportunities for the future with the changing distribution mechanisms for films?
KR: Wow. Now, I really don’t know or maybe I don’t want to think about that. Making movies is a process where you’re cut from reality. It’s a closed and
single world, away from film market mechanisms. But then when the film is finished, I agree and I have nothing against to give it to people who are
involved in this next step — showing film to an audience. But I’m not a specialist in this subject.
WaH: Name your favorite women directed film and why.
KR: Agnes Varda. Just because I admire her movies. I also love her uncompromising being herself. And I cannot believe I’m not coming to AFI when she’ll be
there!
