The political unconscious of Polish 1990s cinema

Andrzej Żuławski's Szamanka [She-Shaman, 1996], based on a screenplay by feminist writer Manuela Gretkowska, uses obscene fantasy to expose the social dynamics of 1990s’ Poland. These were obscured by the ideological fantasies that reinforced the reactionary ideology of the transition, excluding the lower classes from the transformation project and blocking emancipatory potentials. She-Shaman, I contend, provocatively revives a longstanding fear of invasion by “wild” provincial migrants who threaten to infect the health body of the middle class, on the one hand, and, on the other, of strong women who reject the repressive language of patriarchy. I situate She-Shaman in the context of other Polish films of the nineties concerned with women's social advancement. If the narrative films Przystań [The haven, 1997] by Jan Hryniak and Torowisko [The junction, 1999] by Urszula Urbaniak conceal class and gender antagonisms in the name of a social contract, Żuławski's film, with its aesthetic of disintegration and excess, exacerbates these conflicts.