Patrick grew up in the countryside. He moves to Warsaw hoping to build a career in the art world. He is not particularly ambitious. One day, he meets Maria, a “Tears Dealer” – an artist whose project involves collecting tears from gallery visitors for therapeutic purposes. Patrick, however, cannot cry. Maria finds this intriguing and decides that he needs therapy. The two begin a deep and serious relationship, during which they uncover each other’s traumatic pasts – stories of Patrick’s twin sister and Maria’s father.
The debut film by director and art curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Łukasz Ronduda, was Performer (2021), a semi-fictional biography of the cult Polish performance artist Oskar Dawicki, who played himself in the film. The film received the Think: An Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Ronduda later directed several more films, such as All Our Fears (2021), about the Roman Catholic gay activist Daniel Rycharski. This was also a biographical story, with the lead role played by Polish star Dawid Ogrodnik. The protagonists of Ronduda’s latest film too are based on real people (namely Patryk Różycki). It seems that working at Warsaw’s leading art institution gives Ronduda not only a solid position within the art scene but also constant inspiration in his search for characters and stories.
There is a noticeable difference between the director’s first film and his latest work. Ronduda appears to have moved toward a lighter, more mainstream approach, aiming to reach a broader audience. He addresses themes of trauma and the importance of therapy, but does so in the fairly accessible format of a young adult romantic drama. His films have always been distinguished by a clear narrative line. The overall vibe of this film falls somewhere close to the mood of All These Sleepless Nights (2015), by his countryman Michał Marczak.
At the beginning, it is hard to tell the exact time in which te story is set. The characters are dressed in a 1990s’ attire. Later, yet Maria uses a present-day smartphone. We eventually realise that the characters are imitating the fashion from the late 20th century. The film feels vaguely detached of time, both in its subject matter and its execution; one can easily imagine a movie like this being made 30 years earlier.
The film’s light, almost playful style further reinforces this sense of deliberate accessibility. Ronduda frames heavy subjects through an aesthetic that leans toward fashionable hipster sensibilities: carefully curated interiors, vintage clothing, ironic art-world rituals, and a Warsaw that feels more like a lifestyle backdrop than a lived-in city. This visual and tonal polish makes the film easy to watch and pleasant to inhabit, but it also smooths out the sharp edges of the characters’ experiences.
While trauma is repeatedly named as a central issue, it is rarely explored in any real depth. The wounds of the lead are briefly explained, and then absorbed into the flow of the romance, without ever truly unsettling the viewer. Therapy, rather than a difficult and ongoing process, becomes an aesthetic device – another element of the film’s cultural milieu, alongside contemporary art and emotional openness as social currency.
Tell Me What You Feel premiered in the 55th edition of the 55th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
