Produced by Wojciech Karubin of Movie Mates and directed by Małgorzata Goliszewska, the new feature documentary project Aria di Bravura, which won the SMAKJAM Award at Krakow FF Industry, tells the story of Grażyna Malczyk, a former opera singer who, at a young age, suddenly lost her voice.
Many years later, she has developed a self‐invented method of treating stuttering that has delivered amazing results worldwide. In the documentary, we see how the scientific world refuse to countenance her methods, despite her success in elevating hundreds of patients out of their dilemmas.
“Maya, Rafa and Olivia, they carry the burden of thousands and thousands of unspoken words,” director Goliszewska explained of some of the patients who go to Grażyna. “They struggle every day. They struggle in every moment of every social interaction, like buying a coffee or going to the post office or even saying hello to your neighbour on the street. [Theirs is] a battle for dignity, because they stutter and they stutter a lot, and they have stuttered since they can remember. And they’ve done pretty much everything there was to be done to cure it, but they still stutter.”
Former opera singer Grażyna was devastated when she lost her singing voice after surgery that went wrong, but in striving to discover what happened, she became an avid student of human speech. “What she found didn’t bring her voice back, but gave her a chance to be able to help hundreds of other people regain their voice. Grażyna believes that she has found the most efficient method of curing stuttering,” says Goliszewska. “Nobody from the scientific world believes Grażyna, so she’s working on a very ambitious doctoral thesis to prove her point.”
“But this film is not about miracles,” the director continued during her Krakow pitch. The method works brilliantly on some people, but doesn’t work that well with others. So it’s quite complicated. But this is, we believe, not the most important thing. The most important thing is Grażyna’s attitude towards her patients, her empathy, the genuine love that she has for them. This is what makes a real difference in lives.”
“The stakes are really high for each of our protagonists,” Goliszewska underlined. “Obtaining a PhD is a big chance for Grażyna to regain her voice, but this time in the scientific field. Maya, she has recently met a guy that she really likes, and she has gotten accepted for a Polish talent show. Rafa is trapped in a boring office job, but secretly he’s writing a very promising novel about stuttering. And Olivia, she just turned 18 and is dreaming to study law. The film will end on a positive tone because all protagonists in the end gain something and overcome their limitations.”
Shooting on the 85-minute Polish-language doc will conclude October 2023, ahead of delivery in 2024. Producer Karabin is looking to raise a further €20,000 to meet the full budget of €180,000. Partners on board are Canal+ Poland and the Polish Film Institute. During Krakow Industry, producer Karubin was looking to drum up broadcaster and festival interest as well as sales representation.
Goliszewska’s feature-length debut Lesson of Love, co‐directed with Kasia Mateja and co‐produced, premiered to acclaim at IDFA in 2019 and was long-listed for the Feature Doc Academy Award in 2021.
