Time to Die

Time to Die (2007)

Pora umierać

An impressionistic, black-and-white portrait of the day-to-day of a nonagenarian woman as she experiences the final act of her life. Danuta Szaflarska stars as Aniela, who lives in a massive yet rapidly-deteriorating wooden house, filled with souvenirs and treasures of eras gone by. Aniela runs into conflict in her dealings with others, particularly a nasty neighbor who sees her property as an eyesore and wants to do everything in his reach to buy it up and tear it down, and her married adult son, who - though kindly - triggers paranoia within Aniela (she cannot help but believe that he is scheming and planning to wheedle the property away from her). Driven aback by these individuals, Aniela finds one of her only sources of comfort and reassurance in her daily talks with her dog, Fila - and develops a great affinity for spying on the neighbors' doings whenever boredom creeps in.

Date of release
2007-10-19
TMDB
7.1 / 10 (24)
Runtime
1h 44m
Genres
Drama
Director
Dorota Kędzierzawska

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 6. Including: Polish Academy Award for Best Actress

Time to Die is a Polish black-and-white drama film from 2007, directed and written by Dorota Kędzierzawska. The protagonist of the film is the elderly Aniela, who lives with her dog in an abandoned wooden villa in Warsaw. The film was produced with the support of the Polish Film Institute and features digital cinematography by Arthur Reinhart. Pora umierać achieved significant success at various festivals, winning awards for sound design and Szaflarska's performance at the Polish Film Festival, as well as earning Szaflarska a Polish Academy Award for Best Actress at the Polish Film Awards. The film also garnered numerous accolades at international film festivals.

Production

The production of Pora umierać was handled by Kid Film and Tandem Taren-To, with support from the Polish Film Institute. The total budget for the film amounted to 1,690,980 PLN.

Director Dorota Kędzierzawska wrote the script specifically with Danuta Szaflarska in mind, who had also appeared in other films directed by Kędzierzawska (Diabły, diabły, 1991; Nic, 1998). In an interview, Kędzierzawska revealed that she had been waiting for Szaflarska to play the role of Aniela for 16 years: "She often hurried me, saying: 'Dorotka, write faster, or I'll drop dead on you'".

The cinematography for Pora umierać was handled by Kędzierzawska's partner, Arthur Reinhart, who shot the film in black and white. The choice of monochrome was a deliberate decision by Kędzierzawska, who argued that "in black contrasted with white, there is purity and nobility". The film was shot from May 16 to 26 June 2006 in Otwock. The film's score was composed by Włodek Pawlik, whose soundtrack was released in 2011 by the Polish Radio.

On 12 and 13 September 2007, Pora umierać was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was met with a standing ovation from the audience. The film premiered in Polish cinemas on 19 October 2007. Kędzierzawska's film was particularly successful in Japan, where it premiered in 2011, mainly attracting older women.

In 2008, Best Film company released Pora umierać on DVD.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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