Directed by: Łukasz Ronduda
Starring: Jan Sałasiński, Izabella Dudziak, Andrzej Konopka, Anita Poddębniak
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Despite being an art historian by profession, Łukasz Ronduda has continued to flirt with feature cinema over the years. Powiedz mi, co czujesz (Tell Me What You Feel) suggests that the defining traits of Gen Z cinema in Poland are beginning to take shape. Or perhaps it is merely a coincidence? Both Emi Buchwald’s surprising debut feature No Ghosts on Good Street and Ronduda’s latest film, set in Warsaw and featuring the young Kraków actress Izabella Dudziak, deal with personal trauma and art therapy.
This time Dudziak portrays Maria, a young contemporary artist who owns her own gallery and was raised in a wealthy family. She crosses paths with Patryk (Jan Sałasiński), an introverted artist from the countryside who tries to make ends meet through his job at a multiplex cinema and the sale of figurative paintings. Maria’s fictitious art project, Tear Dealer, offers the have-nots money in exchange for filling vials with their own tears.
Not every gallery visitor manages to cry on command, including Patryk. Maria soon engages him in a therapeutic yet sincere romance, both to release the trauma trapped within their bodies and to keep her creative momentum going. The class divide between the lovers is also reflected in their artistic practice. Patryk conveys his emotions and experiences through naïve, expressionistic drawings, while Maria thinks about art more conceptually and in terms of installations.
Co-written by Ronduda with Agata K. Koschmieder, the film is peppered with references to the contemporary art milieu in Poland. Tear Dealer is a real art project from 2014 by artists Alicja Rogalska and Łukasz Surowiec, staged in a high-street shop in Lublin, a city in southeastern Poland, where people could sell their tears for cash. The fictional group exhibition in which Maria manages to include Patryk’s drawings takes place in the recently completed, iconic building of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, where Ronduda works as a curator.
Despite Ronduda’s tendency to lay it on thick in his portrayal of Patryk’s family, at times bordering on the grotesque, Tell Me What You Feel unfolds as a refreshing, pretension-proof Gen Z indie romance. The chemistry between Sałasiński and Dudziak only adds to its easy flow. Tell Me What You Feel went on to win the Silver Lions at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, while Jan Sałasiński received the award for Best Professional Acting Debut.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on October 2, 2026