– Emi Buchwald’s debut feature is a family portrait without a landscape
Bartłomiej Deklewa, Tymoteusz Rożynek, Izabella Dudziak and Karolina Rzepa in No Ghosts on Good Street
This article was written as part of the Lab of Creative, Cultural and Festival Journalism held within the Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz and organised by the MIOB festival network. This network includes Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz (AT), Festival de Sevilla (ES), European Film Festival Palić (RS), Les Arcs European Film Festival (FR), Scanorama European Film Forum (LT), Trieste Film Festival (IT) and the FilmFestival Cottbus (DE). With the support of the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme, this project provides cinema journalism training for students and recent graduates. The next edition of the Lab will take place at the European Film Festival Palić.
The camera slowly moves around a house, messy but peaceful. No person in sight but the chatter of four children can be heard. A background hum, both nostalgic and eerie, drowned out by footsteps and a dog barking. And finally, hidden in a corner, a weird little creature sitting by the window. This is the opening scene of Polish filmmaker Emi Buchwald’s debut feature, No Ghosts on Good Street. What follows is a fragmented, 90-minute tale of four siblings as they step into adulthood in their own, respective ways. The film first bowed at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival and recently had its Austrian premiere at the Crossing Europe Film Festival as part of the Competition Fiction category.
Benek (Bartłomiej Deklewa) is the youngest of the four. He is spiralling after his older brother Franek (Tymoteusz Rożynek) has kicked him out of their shared apartment. While his siblings believe he should go to therapy, Benek is convinced he is being haunted by a supernatural creature. Franek himself is having a hard time with his girlfriend and substance abuse. Franek’s twin Nastka (Izabella Dudziak) wants to find love but is unable to let anybody in. And finally, there’s the oldest sister, Jana (Karolina Rzepa), who is recording sounds to create an art exhibition that will bring the whole family together.
Buchwald’s screenplay, co-written by Karol Marczak, starts from all of the familiar tropes of a sibling story. The eldest sister is the most reliable but also the most forgotten. The youngest is the most dependent. The twins, who have their own inside jokes, are each impacted when something happens to the other. This set-up is also supported by fragmented storytelling: instead of a linear narrative, it is divided into sequences with title cards providing clues about what is going to happen. Every sibling gets their moment, but it’s impossible to individualise any storyline. Though they live in different apartments, one choice made by one sibling becomes the driving force behind another’s. Franek describes their dynamics as “a four-person mass”. He wants to run away from it, whereas Benek takes comfort in it.
Ignoring outside factors that would contextualise the situation, Buchwald chooses to focus only on this equally necessary and toxic relationship, leaving even the parents off screen, even though they are mentioned. This lack of context leads the audience to speculate on the reasons behind their actions. Their financial status is confusing, and even their ages are hard to pinpoint. What is certain, however, is that there are some ghosts on Good Street, literal and symbolic.
The sound design by Aleksandra Landsmann and music by Katarzyna Gawlik and Jerzy Rogiewicz are immersive, switching from eerie, distant voices to angsty lyrical songs. They play an important part in the film, especially as we witness Jana collecting sounds for her exhibition. The cinematography is similarly hypnotic, with Tomasz Gajewski’s camera quietly gliding around the characters. The title cards break the immersion created in each vignette, never allowing you to go into depth about one sibling. In this sense, the film itself also operates as a “four-person mass”. What we get is a successfully painted portrait of their dynamics and inner ghosts. However, one can’t help but wonder how much more convincing the result would be if the audience were allowed a little more context about the world around them.
