Tell Me What You Feel Review (IFFR 2026)
If it needs saying, the Warsaw art scene is fiery. From formal institutions to less visible initiatives, artists build cultures in line with the all-pervading contrasts stemming from the contemporary history of this place. Bold and conservative, expressive and brusque. All in all, this generation is brutally outspoken and (I dare say) unconditionally honest.
This is the terrain we enter with Tell Me What You Feel. Patrick, a young, struggling artist, meets Maria, whose current art project, Tear Dealer, is welcoming people daily in a space devoted to crying. Patrick cannot cry, and Maria becomes intrigued. These two, troubled but willing to break free, beyond their obvious differences in financial and career status, have things to orbit and reflect on, and so they engage in an energetic and at points playful romantic adventure.
Director Łukasz Ronduda has a keen, analytical eye on artists. Being a researcher of the Polish avant-garde and curator (formerly at the Archive of Polish Experimental Film and New Media Project at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle and since 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw), he has been a committed scholar in the field. His films focus exclusively on themes around figures of the visual arts, and have been brought into the spotlight at major international venues.
With Tell Me What You Feel, Ronduda returns to Rotterdam’s International Film Festival, following his feature Heart of Love (2017), with another diffused biopic focused on the emotional intersection of two artists. Loosely based on the life of young artist Patryk Różycki – loved by media, artists, and curators – the film progresses with much reliance on information shared through dialogues and subtext. Beyond the moments we’re guided to interpretation (the characters would verbalise their miseries and desires), significant care is given to sunbeams and electric strings. In essence, the life of poor Patrick is wrapped in script tricks and visual sensationalism. With all the narration based on physical agitation and nosy games, the picture becomes, to my dismay, a simple impression of contemporary young love. At least as it is often portrayed on camera, under direction. We’ve seen it much, and appreciate it little, for utterly dismissing the emotional complexity and any tangible, visceral, actually peculiar and unique element that makes two bodies (let alone artists) explode when meeting. This may not be the case in life as we know it, but I do expect cinema not merely to annotate love, but to leviate it. So much for study, reasoning, and understanding.
Yet again, under more permissive lights, Tell Me What You Feel does respond to an awakening generation, perhaps with more emotionally supportive intentions than invoking or interpretive ones, yes. But it still brings a sort of indicative taste of a generation of young artists who are able to dig deep and recover from national wounds their families carry. Not a simple matter, considering the currently unfolding tale on the grounds of Warsaw.
Tell Me What You Feel (Powiedz mi, co czujesz), 100’ / Dir.: Łukasz Ronduda / Screenplay:Agata K. Koschmieder, Łukasz Ronduda / Cinematography: Weronika Bilska / Sound Design: Marcin Lenarczyk / Cast: Jan Sałasiński, Izabella Dudziak / Producer: Natalia Grzegorzek / Production Company: KOSKINO / Poland
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