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PIFF 42 Official Selection

Fugue

Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska

Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic • 2018 • 100 mins. • In Polish, English with subtitles

Showtimes & Past Screenings

Director Smoczynska takes a sharp left turn in her follow up to 2015’s The Lure, abandoning the singing, murderous mermaids of her debut for a more realistically grounded and somber tale of a woman who returns to her former life after falling into a dissociative fugue state. Pitched somewhere between a mystery and a domestic drama, Fugue follows Alicja (Gabriela Muskala, who also wrote the screenplay) as she tries to reintegrate back into a role that may no longer be available for her, all while her husband (Lukasz Simlat), son (Iwo Rajski), and others once close to her struggle to reconnect with a woman they barely recognize. “Fugue transforms into a rather striking sophomore offering, cementing its author as one of our finest emerging international voices.” —Jacob Knight, Birth. Movies. Death.

Filmography: The Lure (2015)

Sponsored by the Polish Library Building Association

Appears in: 42nd Portland International Film Festival, PIFF 42: Global Panorama

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.