GLORIOUS SUMMER: A Beautiful Yet Unsettling Dream [REVIEW]

In one scene of the series Studio, the main character delivers a moving speech in which he expresses his love for film stock and the way productions shot on it look. The echoes of that monologue stayed with me during the screening of Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak’s feature debut – Glorious Summer. It is hard not to appreciate how this film looks, and that is far from its only merit.

Glorious Summer tells the story of three women living within the walls of an impressive Renaissance palace. There, an enigmatic system fulfills all their life needs – providing food, entertainment, and tools for self-improvement. All of this comes with a single condition: the women are forbidden to cross the walls surrounding the estate. Prolonged restrictions begin to feel like enslavement, and the protagonists secretly devise a plan to escape. The film’s beautiful visuals thus contrast with the unsettling content and the mechanism controlling the women’s lives.

Glorious Summer is hard to categorize – the action theoretically takes place in Poland, though it could just as well be set in another country. The modern system controlling women within the palace walls may evoke science fiction and a dystopian future, but Ganjalyan and Szpak’s film is more reminiscent of a dream set outside time and space. It hits screens in 2025, yet it is shot in a way that makes one believe it could have been made 50 years ago.

All of this adds up to a fascinating but fairly demanding project – the pace is unhurried, and there are few dialogues. This made the roles of Magdalena Fejdasz-Hanczewska, Daniela Komędera, and Helena Ganjalyan herself (who appears on both sides of the camera in Glorious Summer) an even greater challenge. Apart from them, the screen features only one other extended character (played by Weronika Humaj), though we’ll keep the details about her a secret for now.

Much is expressed through the actresses’ glances and small gestures. Even with such minimal means of expression, we can understand each of their personalities, even as the system blurs their identities. We observe them during activities organized by the controlling entity, during leisure time playing in an inflatable pool and shooting water pistols, and while practicing… playing dead, a preparation for their planned escape.

Will they succeed? What does the world beyond the walls look like? These questions linger in the back of the mind throughout the screening. While Ganjalyan and Szpak do not answer all of them, there is no sense of dissatisfaction; Glorious Summer leaves us with an active imagination. As viewers, we can construct our own vision of a world where, under the guise of fulfilling needs and eternal summer, there hides an oppressive system aiming to erase citizens’ sense of self. Like a beautiful dream that gradually reveals itself as a nightmare.

Technically, Glorious Summer successfully creates the illusion that the protagonists’ world is indeed as wonderful and fulfilling as it initially appears. The frames radiate warmth and the scent of summer (particularly deceptive when viewed after weeks of frost), palace interiors are composed like paintings, and the actresses perfectly integrate their performances into this dominant dreamlike atmosphere. The mood is further enhanced by Bartosz Szpak’s ambient music (what a creative duo!).

However, let’s not kid ourselves – this is not a film for everyone. I suspect viewers who prefer faster pacing and more dynamic interactions between characters may find Glorious Summer challenging (and the creators themselves are likely aware of this). Still, it is worth appreciating that a film has been made in Poland whose directors allowed themselves to fully present their vision, knowing exactly what they wanted to offer audiences (Glorious Summer was, in fact, based on a stage play the same duo created years ago). Are you ready to discover what their world will leave inside you?