Aga Woszczyńska is a director, scriptwriter, and anthropologist. Her short films have screened and won awards at numerous film festivals — including Cannes, Helsinki International Film Festival, T-Mobile New Horizons, Sao Paulo Kinoforum, and Warsaw Film Festival — and been acquired by national and international TV channels. Woszczyńska’s short “Fragments” had its international premiere at Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. “Silent Land” is her first feature film. Woszczyńska is currently working on her second feature, “Black Water.”

“Silent Land” will premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10. The fest is taking place September 9-18.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

AW: My film is about the condition of European thirty-somethings, their emotional isolation, moral confusion, and disintegration of social norms and bonds. “Silent Land” is a film about the collapse of a relationship, but on a wider scale it is about something more important, which concerns me, about the collapse of the system of values in contemporary Europe, the indifference to our current reality, and social lethargy.

Ultimately, “Silent Land” is a tale about alienation not only from each other but also from the world. It’s about conformity and passivity, in which the need for safety and convenience is a strategy of survival.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

AW: I made my short graduation film “Fragments,” which premiered at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight, about the same couple: Anna and Adam, played by the same actors, Agnieszka Żulewska and Dobromir Dymecki. But I still had the impression that this short film was not enough to tell the story about emotional bankruptcy, as I like to call the state my characters are in. I needed more screen time to let the audience understand them, to forgive them, especially Adam for his behavior. In “Fragments,” the focus was more on Anna; “Silent Land” is more about Adam. And I wanted to defend this character and be proud of his gradual change in personality.

When the catastrophe on Lampedusa happened, I wanted to make a commentary, but not in a literal way, on how Europe — through the viewpoint of my characters — can be so incredibly passive and blind to the plight of immigrants.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

AW: Well, I don’t have any influence on what people will think after the screening. Ideally, I would like to make people more socially sensitive and [inspire them] to not just close themselves in their homes and [focus only on] their own needs. Especially now, when a country like Afghanistan desperately needs help, we are closing our eyes and borders.

I realize it may not be easy, but maybe someone will see themselves in either Anna or Adam and confront some of our behavioral patterns that we don’t want to see in ourselves. In “Silent Land,” I invite the audience to an unhurried, highly visual journey that may feel uncomfortable. I don’t really want to play up to the viewers and please them; I want to shake them up and lead to some kind of catharsis.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

AW: In one word: time. It took me five years to make this film — including the scriptwriting process with my co-writer Piotr Litwin. When we were ready and packed to fly to Sardinia, where the entire film was shot, we had to postpone shooting because of COVID. This was a really tough time for me: with so much waiting and uncertainty, I didn’t know when we would start our work again.

We had crew and actors from all over Europe. Until the very last minute, I wasn’t entirely sure if everybody would appear on the set. Day after day new information was coming that other shooting plans in Sardinia were closed due to COVID restrictions, but we eventually made it! However, it was extremely stressful and took a lot of my energy.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

AW: In Europe we don’t have big studios that invest private money to finance movies. We have a system of public funding that includes national film institutes, film commissions and regional funds, which support the films I make — artistic, not exactly targeted at commercial success and huge box office. My film is a co-production between Poland, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The film was initiated in Poland; I’m Polish and so is my main producer, Agnieszka Wasiak of Lava Films. The film was shot entirely in Italy and the post-production was done in the Czech Republic.

During our filmmaking journey, we met other great partners: in Italy, Giovanni Pompili at Kino Produzioni, and in the Czech Republic, Jordi Niubo at I/O Post. In Poland, we received support from the Polish Film Institute, Łódź Film Fund, and from Canal+ Poland. In Italy and the Czech Republic the film was supported by their local public funds. In Italy, we also got great logistic help from Sardinia Film Commission. Our Czech Partner is a post-production studio, so they also invested in the film with their services and facilities. We are supported by European supranational funding, too: Eurimages and Creative Europe Media program.

So it’s all a patchwork of different funds and partners, and we were financing “Silent Land” for about four years altogether. It’s been a long, arduous process but it was an amazing feeling when we finally closed the budget and could greenlight the production.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

AW: Since I was a kid I was organizing and “directing” plays at home, where my own family members were the cast, then I was directing shows at primary school. At secondary school I attended film courses for beginners. I always wanted to tell stories, not through dialogue, but through images that carry meaning and emotions.

Now I can say for a fact that if I weren’t a film director, I wouldn’t meet so many interesting people and visit so many interesting places. Making films gives me an opportunity to be open to diversity and teaches me to be humble and tolerant.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

AW: The best advice comes from my great film school professor, Filip Bajon. Filip once told me, after I’d made a short film that didn’t work very well: “Aga, you could be a great director, but you have to change your way of thinking from event-related into situation-related.” At first I couldn’t understand what he’d meant. I kept thinking about what he’d said to me over and over and when I finally got it, it completely changed my way of thinking about scriptwriting.

The worst, but maybe not that bad, piece of advice: Initially, I wanted to be a cinematographer. I was attending film courses for cinematographers before enrolling into film school. Our teacher once said that I was too skinny to hold the camera, so I would be better off applying to the directing department. In retrospect, I don’t regret that I decided to become a director instead of a cinematographer, but I still remember this stupid, derogatory sentence.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

AW: Women and nonbinary directors should not consider themselves underprivileged, because there is simply no reason to think like this. Cinema does not have a gender. It is either good or bad, that is all. There is no need to distinguish female directors from male directors. We are equal. And do not believe it when somebody tells you that you are too skinny to hold a film camera!

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

AW: Lynne Ramsay’s films, especially “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” She treats film form as content, which to me is really important. In “Kevin,” she tells what is essentially a family drama, but somehow manages to give us something much more, by taking her story to a meta level concerning the condition of contemporary, wealthy society in which there is no place for failure. She speaks about the world where the need of convenience is most important and is identified with happiness. I find that type of strong commentary shocking and wonderful at the same time.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how? 

AW: I got the development fund for my second feature, “Black Water.” I’m writing the script with my co-writer Łukasz Czapski. The script is currently in the advanced stage, but it still needs some time, and we need extra time to find financing abroad since the film won’t be shot in Poland. It’s a story that came to me during the COVID lockdown. The story is about two female strangers trapped on a Scandinavian island due to an ecological catastrophe. This bizarre time of captivity helps them discover themselves and each other, to understand what real freedom is.

In addition, I’m starting to think about my third feature, “White Fire,” which will focus on men. Throughout this time, I’ve also been working as a script editor for an original series.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive?

AW: As directors and scriptwriters, we should write more inclusive stories and invite not only people of color but also members of the LGBTQ community to work with us. But I also think everything begins with education in school. The system should teach young people that we are diverse, which makes us beautiful, and should be considered equal at the same time.

In Europe, a lot of things depend on the director. For instance, I put a lot of effort in keeping my film set as eco-friendly as possible in the pandemic. I hope my next film will be made under entirely eco-friendly conditions.