Michał Chmielewski

His debut feature film, “Roving Woman”, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 in New York. Before fully committing to filmmaking, he worked as a civil engineer, and immediately after graduating from technical university, he was employed on a construction site in Saudi Arabia. Michał Chmielewski has also directed numerous short films and music videos, which have been screened at film festivals worldwide, earning him several awards.

Born in 1988 in Kraków, his unconventional path to a film career traversed technical studies and civil engineering. Right after university, he worked on a construction site in Saudi Arabia and recounts, “It was there that I started making my first films — with a phone, a camera. I appeared in them myself; they were my monologues, I played some scenes, and I even had a mini audience among friends. I was also fascinated by photography and studied it in the meantime. Eventually, I was accepted into the Film School in Katowice.”

A swift breakthrough in his career came when his school short film, “Śnił mi się już słoń i kino” (“I Already Dreamed of an Elephant and Cinema”, 2018), was awarded the best film at The Quarantine Film Festival. This 12-minute film tells the story of Nicolas, an 8-year-old boy captivated by literature. In a few days, he is set to publish his first book, “Połamany ludzik” (“Broken Little Man”). Nicolas’s father often takes him on drives to the seaside, during which they talk about life and art. Nicolas’s companion is Ravik, a steppe tortoise. During one of these trips, Nicolas notices an older girl, Ewa, on the beach, and falls in love.

“The elephant was loosely based on the father-son relationship between writers Roland and Nicolas Topor,” the director explains. “I read somewhere that they conducted interviews with each other similar to the one that begins my film. The elephant was also part of the ‘adaptation’ course I took with Professor Bajon, and the starting point — as well as the pretext for writing the screenplay — was Proust’s novel.”

A year later, the film “Hi, How Are You” (2019) was created, which, according to Chmielewski, also has a literary foundation: it lightly touches on Murakami’s short story “The Elephant Vanishes”. The film was largely inspired by the figure of Daniel Johnston, an incredible yet underappreciated musician who, throughout his life, was somewhat lost.

Hi, How Are You is the story of Sławek, a fifty-year-old unemployed man who either stays at home performing tasks assigned by his wife or wanders around the neighborhood searching for a missing cat. One day, he meets the mysterious neighbor Kamila, who invites him into her garden. The film has won several awards, including the Canal+ Award at the Koszalin Debut Film Festival Young and Film.

In 2022, Chmielewski’s name became a hot topic in industry circles: the Polish debutant was nominated for the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival’s Best New Narrative Award in New York, and his film’s production was supported by Wim Wenders.

“During my fourth year, I faced a pivotal decision. I could pursue another short film, following the traditional path often taken by graduates of Polish film schools — Chmielewski recalls in an interview with Joanna Malicka for ultra_maryna — “How many of these shorts can one make? I have this American observation: short films don’t interest anyone here—especially not investors. Many creators—Jarmusch and our own Andrzej Jakimowski—made their first feature films with their own modest funds. I thought, maybe this is the right way.” This was the inception of the idea for “Roving Woman”.

We co-wrote the screenplay for “Roving Woman” with Lena Góra. Together, we decided that the story would primarily unfold on the Californian desert. We opted to travel to Los Angeles, where I had a few friends, and Lena had previously lived. — the director reminisces — “Initially, we had little money—just enough for a school project. Nevertheless, we decided to write a full-length script and shoot the film immediately. We completed the screenplay in a month, I traveled to the States, and we immediately began scouting locations and filming. The entire process took us two and a half years. Our film was born in the spirit of authentic independent cinema.”

Twenty-something Sara (Lena Góra) has just broken up with her boyfriend (whom we never see on screen). Drunk, dressed in a long elegant gown and white high heels, Sara causes a scene, banging on his door for hours. As a result, feeling resigned and rejected, she spends the night on a trash-heap sofa. The next morning, aimlessly wandering through Los Angeles, she stumbles upon a gas station, where, impulsively, she steals a car and drives into the unknown.

In the vehicle, Sara discovers an unexpected travel companion — a male voice (John Hawkes) emanating from a left-behind CD player, interweaving songs with personal dedications. Sara begins to interpret these as messages specifically directed at her. The car — her only refuge — as well as the voice and the belongings of its owner, Gregory Milloy, serve as her guides on an increasingly distant journey eastward across the Joshua Tree desert roads. Over time, her fascination with the mysterious man shifts into a desire to find him.

But Sara’s solitary journey through the desert is not an obsessive chase after a stranger. It is an inward voyage, an attempt to find in herself what will liberate her from the imposed role of the “abandoned woman.” Encounters with various people along the way—from a southern couple (featuring the captivating Bear Badeaux and Crystal Rivers) to a mysterious hitchhiker (a humorously modest appearance by independent producer Chris Hanley)—offer different perspectives on life, love, and loneliness.

In the film, scenes scripted in the screenplay are blended with improvisation and the use of hidden cameras. For example, in scenes where Sara is driving through the city and around it, asking people to borrow phones to call her mother, inquiring about directions, or begging for money, these moments were captured spontaneously, often with concealed cameras.

Roving Woman is a collection of various inspirations: a clash of personal experiences intertwined with the influence of artist Connie Converse, who was the first American singer-songwriter. She performed on the Greenwich Village music scene in the 1960s. One day, she packed her Volkswagen Beetle and set off, never to be seen again. She represents for me a figure of lostness, an outsider. People often say that my films explore the peripheries of society or culture, and indeed, that is a common motif in my work — the director explains.

“Two restless souls — Connie Converse and Sara — are connected here through wandering, undertaken in search of their true selves and to confront a crushing sense of loneliness. Roving Woman explores feelings of isolation and inner fears during a journey, accompanied by the intriguing electronic compositions of Teonika Rożynek or recently rediscovered and acclaimed melancholic tracks by Converse. It is precisely the musical layer that creates a genuinely American road movie atmosphere. The picturesque landscapes of California gradually become a source of solace for Sara, while the stolen car turns into a new home and a desired refuge,” reads a review by Daria Sienkiewicz for Filmweb.

 

“Full of soul, tender, and humorous… beautifully shot, with a wonderful soundtrack and a great lead performance,” wrote Film International after the film’s premiere.

“Debuting with a feature film, Chmielewski demonstrates a commendable confidence,” states a review by Aleks Ramona.

For Roving Woman, Michał Chmielewski received, among other awards, the K MAG magazine award in the FILM category, which is given to young, promising filmmakers. He is currently working on two new projects: Polaroid Kidd, a feature film based on the life of Mike Brodie, and Sąsiedztwo (Neighborhood), co-written with Marta Konarzewska.

“I am most interested in relationships in cinema, in observing simple things and what happens between people. I like Jim Jarmusch, who focuses on characters rather than events. Sometimes, watching a well-developed, original, and interesting character in a everyday situation (for example, shopping) can be more fascinating than Hollywood plot twists,” declares Michał Chmielewski about his approach to filmmaking.