Jola and Wiesiek are a pair of eccentric businessmen from Bytom. Together with their three employees they run probably the biggest pawnshop in Europe. However, the time of its glory has passed, with the closure of the nearby mines and growing unemployment in the city. Deprived of a livelihood, the inhabitants of the ‘Polish Detroit’ resort to pawning increasingly absurd and useless objects. Neither Wiesiek’s crazy marketing ideas nor Jola’s tender heart can help the failing business. She supports her clients, not only with kind words, but also with hot soup or a warm blanket. Although the pawnshop is losing money, it becomes an important centre of life for the local community. Soon, however, it finds itself on the brink of bankruptcy, and Jola and Wiesiek’s relationship is put to the test. With disaster looming, the owners make one last attempt to save their business and their love.
CREW:
Director: Lukasz Kowalski
Producer: Anna Mazerant, Lukasz Kowalski
Cinematographer: Stanislaw Cuske
Sound: Katarzyna Szczerba
Production
4.30 Studio
Awards
Grand Prix Bank Millennium Award, Studio Cinemas Association Award-Special Mention, Smakjam Award, Silesian Audience Award at Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2022), Central & Eastern Europe Competition at Astra Film Festival Sibiu (2022)
Director
Lukasz Kowalski
Lukasz Kowalski is a director, journalist and a maker of television programmes. He graduated from the Department of Philology at the University of Silesia in Katowice and the Wajda School in Warsaw.
Since 2007 he has been professionally associated with TVP (Polish Television). He has made over 170 short documentary films, as well as special reports shown on many of TVP’s channels. He has won many awards at the most prestigious journalism competitions in Poland.
Since 2018 he has been co-owner of 4:30 Studio, a boutique production company based in Katowice.
He has participated in many master classes, workshops, and professional training (also abroad) in the field of media and film direction.
Selected Filmography
The Pawnshop (2022), The Return (2017), What Happened with Marcin (2017), Weekend with Potucha (2017), What’s Up, Neighbour? (2016), The Dust Is Killing Us (2015), Exam in Humanity (2014), Captives (2013), The Last Will (2011), On The Legal Basis (2008)
