In this gritty Polish film written and directed by Michal Rosa, three individuals struggle against staggering odds in a big Silesian city to fulfill their dreams. Young Seba (Damian Hryniewicz) works as a street vendor with his father. He spends a lot of his spare time in a cemetery at the grave of his mother, who died when he was young. His mission is to get enough money to chop down a tree containing noisy birds who interrupt his quiet communion with her.

He is quite taken with 17-year-old Marta (Dominika Kluzniak), an aspiring singer who has a young son. Her dream is to start a new life in Norway. She sings in a band and does odd jobs to raise the money she needs to leave the city. When things go bad, Marta relies upon her mother who has a more realistic understanding of human nature than she does.

Josef (Krzysztof Stroiniki), in the opening scene, crashes his car and his wife's (Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak) teeth are badly damaged. Trying to raise money to get them fixed is no easy matter for this wily middle-aged man who has a bad habit of lying. He works at various odd jobs and is embarrassed not to have regular work. Both he and his wife have been deeply traumatized by the loss of their son.

In the course of What Sun Has Seen, the three characters circle around each other and in the end all wind up at the same place at the same time. Seba is infatuated with Marta, and Josef plays a major role in influencing her trip to Norway. Although these three are all resourceful, they face one obstacle after another in pursuit of their dreams. It is tough in big cities to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, no matter how fierce your yearning.


Screened at the New Directors/New Films Festival, New York City, March 2007.