"NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN (SNIEGU JUZ NIGDY NIE BEDZIE)" // KINO POLSKA: NEW POLISH CINEMA AT BAM

BY MATEO MORENO

If you've ever had an amazing massage, you know that it can have true healing power. Power to charge you up again so that you can face the day, the week, the month and beyond. The magic hands of a great masseuse is something that's nearly a necessity in many people's lives and here in NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN (SNIEGU JUZ NIGDY NIE BEDZIE), the magical new film from Michael Englert and Malgorzata Szumowska, we follow a mysterious masseuse who travels from Ukraine to Poland and visits several wealthy clientele who are all who are enchanted in one way or another by his skills. Starting with a truly wonderful opening sequence, we meet Zenia (Alec Utgoff) as he arrives at immigration and somehow enthralls the official with his magic hands and ends up stamping his own passport, as the official seems magically subdued by his skill. That sequence sets the tone for the entire film: a charming film full of magic, sometimes without explanation and always endearing.

The gated rich community he attends to seem to all be under his spell. We follow him throughout his appointments as he goes from different families, single clients and couples, observing their lives silently, giving us a sense that something bigger, something larger is at play. His quiet demeanor puts everyone at ease around him, even as they argue amongst each other or complain about immigrants (the tone immediately strikes in that "But not you of course" kind of way). Even with their money and their rudeness, he is silently in control at all times. Is it simply because he's great at giving a massage or something more? He seems to hold powers to snap them out of their own reality, to full have them in his mystical control. There's the alcoholic mother, a cancer stricken man, the lonely wife, a woman obsessed with her dogs and a very serious ex-soldier. All are sent to a magical place to calm them but as we spend more time with him, it's not only his clients that are put under his spell: It's the audience as well. You feel enchanted by him, swept away even as the film seems to dangle answers (such as who exactly Zenia is) and then sweep them away, just out of our reach. The classical music soundtrack also richens each moment, as does the beautiful cinematography and it builds to quite a cathartic conclusion that cements the originality of this film. NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN is a glorious triumph, part satire, part healing drama and part magical, mystery tour of the subconscious mind. It's a film that needs to be seen to be felt. Or perhaps it's the other way around.

GRADE: A

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Michael Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska STARRING Alec Utgoff, Agata Kulesza, Maja Ostaszewska, Wernoka Rosati. SELECTED AS PART OF THE 2021 KINO POLSKA: NEW POLISH CINEMA AT BAM. FOR MORE INFO: KINO POLSKA