Directed by: Iga Lis
Rating: ★★★★☆
A group of female filmmakers is reshaping portrait documentaries in Poland with a fresh focus on modern queens of all kinds. After Bogna Kowalczyk’s Boylesque (2022), which portrayed octogenarian drag queen Lulla La Polaca with tact and compelling depth, Iga Lis released Bałtyk (The Queen and the Smokehouse, 2025)—a non-fiction tribute to Barbara “Miecia” Wróblewska, the hardest-working woman in the fish smoking business.
Nicknamed the Queen of Łeba, Miecia is a compulsive smoker—of both cigarettes and fish. Her smokehouse, located beside a kitschy amusement park in the Baltic town of Łeba, has achieved legendary status in Poland after more than forty years in operation. Lis managed to make her debut documentary feature after persuading Miecia to let her film the smokehouse over three summers during peak season.
The camera tightens on Miecia’s face through the haze, revealing life’s scars only in fleeting moments of vulnerability. She is a force of vitality, revered by her employees—a woman who chose joy for her customers at any cost, even the slow sacrifice of her lungs. Her retreat to a wellness center feels less like healing and more like exile, heavy with torment.
Despite Miecia’s charisma constantly on the verge of stealing the spotlight, The Queen and the Smokehouse also offers a striking portrait of a Baltic seaside town in the 21st century: wind-swept beaches lined with colorful screens, kitsch boats, fake sailors, and Italo disco pounding at full volume until the holiday season’s final breath. Summer nostalgia, if viewers seek it, is reserved for the closing credits.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on November 25, 2025