A former student of the National Film School in Łódź, where Polanski also studied (Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby), Wieczorek is the heir to a cinematographic heritage of horror. Sweat, lymph, metal, blood: her film borrows from body-horror (a sub-genre in which bodies are shown to transform violently under the effect of events such as illness) and from slasher (another horror sub-genre, in which a psychopath who kills with a knife is often portrayed); but it also seeks to reinvent them: unlike the women in these films, who are usually given a passive role, here, the character of Ewa makes a choice. (…)
Faced with the vision of a contagious pregnancy, and then the mutilation of a little being, it is not disgust or fear that seizes us, but a fever, like after a beating. The brutality of the images is the only possible response to the violence suffered by all these women who have a mother’s destiny imposed upon them by a social and cultural mechanism. It is also a way of alerting us to the current political context in Poland, where the right to abortion was abolished in October 2020. It should be remembered that 42 per centof women in the world still do not have access to this human right.

fragm. of „Chambre Froid / Cold Room” a text by Estelle Benazet HEUGENHAUSER

Artist talk

Stills

Teaser

Film info

Original / English title: Growing
Country of production: France
Year of completion: 2021
Film type: Short, Fiction
Genre / Interest: Horror / Body-horror / Sci-fiction
Running time: 17:25 min
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English, French
Shooting format: Digital 2.8K
Picture: Colour
Aspect ratio: 1:1,85
Frequency: 24fps
Sound: 5.1
Screening formats: DCP, ProRes, Blu-Ray

Credits

Written and directed by
Agata Wieczorek

Direction of photography
Joanna Kakitek

Sound Director
Jeremy Liccardo d’Angela

Editor
Magdalena Urbańska

Director assistant on set
Lauren Oliel

Cast

Unit 1

Unit 2

Produced by
Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains

With thanks to

Direction and the team of the
Centre de simulation PRESAGE Université de Lille | Faculté de médecine Henri Warembourg :

Hélène Bourgeois
Gilles Lebuffe

For their sharing the space and equipment of PRESAGE for the film,
Thomas Paget for his kindness, time and engagement in realisation of the film.

Maxime Velé
for his assistance and engagement in organisation of the technical Team.

Geoffrey Durcak
for his personal engagement and help in sound post-produtcion.

Director of La Petite Galerie du Monde:

Luc Hosspied
For his trust and sharing his space for the film.

Copyright © Agata Wieczorek – Le Fresnoy – Studio National – 2021
All rights reserved