SIMONA KOSSAK. A One-Way Journey with Nature

How much of Simona is in Simona? For some viewers, this may be an extremely important question. For me, it’s secondary, because I don’t perceive Adrian Panek’s film as a biographical piece. It is a sparse, selective film, yet surprisingly comprehensive—if one makes it to the finale without losing interest. At times, it is one-sided, overly dramatic, and features deer in CGI that look absolutely terrible. However, it doesn’t repel with boredom; on the contrary, it draws the viewer in with strong performances and its depiction of an excessive attachment to class identity, which ultimately destroyed the upper class itself. And all of this is set in the evocatively filmed world of the Białowieża Forest. So, if you’re not looking for an ideologically driven biography, but also not an unreflective drama about evil hunters fighting with deer, Simona Kossak will likely be a surprisingly positive choice among the socially engaged films of the past decade.

I must admit, I never thought Simona Kossak was an interesting enough figure to warrant a film about her. After all, unlike virtually her entire family, she wasn’t a painter. She worked in a field that is rather enigmatic to the average person—her research is certainly well known in the scientific community, but let’s be honest—Kossak family paintings resonate with the public on a much broader level than zoopsychology or even forest ecosystem conservation. That’s just human nature: if something doesn’t directly affect us—and so far, deforestation hasn’t significantly impacted daily life—we tend to focus on what is pleasant, easy, and, as Leszek Wilczek (played by Jakub Gierszał) put it, idyllic. And that’s exactly what Kossak family paintings were—idealistic, slightly kitschy, and therefore easy to consume.

So, I had my doubts about whether a film about Simona Kossak was worth making. Now I know—it was. A good screenwriter can turn even the most uncinematic material into something compelling enough to keep the audience engaged.

Adrian Panek’s Approach

Adrian Panek had to find a way to increase the presence of Simona in Simona. Her family situation turned out to be the perfect tool to complete the film’s story. Simona’s relationship with her mother became the catalyst for the narrative, presenting her not as some eco-crazy woman obsessed with fighting hunters and corrupt foresters, but as a lonely individual, a victim of both her family name and the toxic artistic circles she was born into. Białowieża became her sanctuary—a place where she found her own path in life. A path that was incomparably more meaningful than drinking, doing drugs, and indulging in narcissistic self-worship, which were the pastimes of her relatives.

On the other hand, choosing that path came with its own challenges and hardships. Portraying such a character was no easy task. Fortunately, Sandra Drzymalska turned out to be an incredibly authentic actress whose emotions I could truly believe in. She held my attention, along with her co-stars Jakub Gierszał and Borys Szyc. They made me realize that it’s often unfair to judge people harshly when they decide to abandon society, live in the forest, and make charcoal. The significance of their choice is greater than whether or not they study what deer eat and how it impacts the forest ecosystem. What matters is the radical difficulty of such a decision—something that those who criticize it often fail to understand.

There’s a difference, of course, between those who dedicate their lives to nature and those who leave their comfortable cities temporarily, chaining themselves to trees for a season in the name of activism. Simona wasn’t one of those seasonal activists. She devoted herself to the forest, to nature. She embarked on a one-way journey with no return—and she won. The film captures this convincingly, without unnecessary exaggeration or spectacle, except for the CGI deer collapsing under the hunters’ relentless gunfire. That particular scene could have been handled better.

A Visually and Emotionally Engaging Film

Overall, though, both the cinematography and the music are impressive. They create the atmosphere of the 1970s while giving it a contemporary interpretative twist. This gives the film a chance to resonate with younger audiences—perhaps even those interested in eco-activism. And not the Instagram-TikTok version of activism, but something more serious, something rooted in science—an approach that no one could dismiss as amateurish, attention-seeking, or disruptive for the sake of disruption. This is the kind of environmental activism we need—strong, resistant, yet open to cooperation. By now, at this stage of our civilization’s development, it should be clear that nature needs us just as much as we need nature, especially with the knowledge we have about it.

The Importance of Films Like Simona Kossak

Polish cinema also needs more films like Simona Kossak—not necessarily biopics, but films that highlight the existence and significance of such figures. Films that emphasize how important their work was and how fascinating their lives could be. Judging this production solely based on its adherence to biography is pointless; it only does a disservice to the filmmakers. Simona Kossak is not a biographical film—it is, at best, inspired by a biography.