05/09/2002 - The Polish director presents Julie Walking Home- in competition - her first European film after a long period of time spent in America

Julie walking home is Agnieszka Holland’s return to Europe after a number of disappointing productions in America. For Holland, who studied under Andrzej Wajda and Krysztof Zanussi, this German, Polish and Canadian co-production is also a return to familiar territory: conflict between faith and reason and the difficulties associated with coming to terms with life. “My films always reflect my point of view and the way in which I deal with life. They are my form of analysis.”
Julie Walking Home is the story of a Hungarian woman, called Julie, who was famous in all of Europe for her healing skills. Ironically, she was unable to heal herself. “Ours is not an age of illumination, we must not explain reality from a rational point of view because it is just too complicated.” So is the film. A blend of love and pain, disappointment and passion, life and death as the protagonists do their utmost to try and control events. “This is a film about a multitude of issues and it was difficult for me to find a narrative style that brought them all together. I did not want to create confusion but there are things that cannot be explained. Sometimes you don’t even have to try.” Miranda Otto gives a performance of rare intensity as Julie, a woman whose marriage is coming apart and whose son has cancer. Julie wants to win and ends up believing the unbelievable when she travels from Canada to Poland to look for a Russian healer with whom she ends up falling in love with. Julie’s character is also the prototype of modern man: in conflict with God, always in search of miracles and trying to come to term with events in the name of happiness that does not exist. “This film is not about miracles and alternative cures,” said Holland, “but rather the story of a profound transformation; a journey from anger to peace. An emotional journey that ends in resignation.”

(Translated from Italian)