{"id":622841,"date":"2026-09-12T22:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:30:09","slug":"mia-wasikowska-is-agata-the-writer-in-kuba-dorabialskis-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622841\/","title":{"rendered":"Mia Wasikowska Is ‘Agata the Writer’ in Kuba Dorabialski’s Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMia Wasikowska<\/a> fills out the screen in Kuba Dorabialski<\/a>\u2019s \u201cAgata the Writer.\u201d <\/a>Metaphorically and figuratively, as one especially arresting sequence shows her in close-up looking directly at the audience and recounting the rest of the story.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was so curious about it,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLuckily, when I\u2019m doing something, I don\u2019t think too much about how it\u2019s going to be perceived. Kuba sent me some references, which I thought were really interesting, and it felt organic. But then, when I was watching the scene, I thought: \u2018Ok. That\u2019s enough of my face\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKnown for blockbusters like \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d and high-profiles dramas \u201cStoker\u201d or \u201cJane Eyre,\u201d Wasikowska has been pursuing arthouse fare in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was really excited about making a film that didn\u2019t follow a typical narrative structure. I feel like we have tunnel vision about how to tell a story and make a film,\u201d notes Wasikowska. She also executive produced the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis brings back the sense of exploration. I\u2019m very proud it was made in a market that\u2019s increasingly myopic about how it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA Whitefalk Films and Produktion Productions production \u2013 sold by French sales company\u00a0MMM Film Sales<\/a> \u2013 sees Wasikowska as Agata, a Polish-Australian writer who arrives in Sarajevo to write about the war. She wants to speak to the survivors, but they question her motives. Not to mention, weird artworks start to mysteriously disappear from the house where she\u2019s staying.<\/p>\n

\n\tDorabialski wanted to combine cinema and literature in the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow do you make these two very different but also very interconnected forms of expression work? Reading is a solitary practice, and we experience cinema collectively,\u201d he states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was been back and forth about the title pretty much until the premiere in Venice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd then, suddenly, I felt affection for it. I have a lot of affection also for writers too. The essence of everything I\u2019m interested in is this very particular magic of literature. But where it falls short is silence and stillness. Even a novel that explores silence has to fill that void with language. Cinema has the audience in chains, dictating how long stillness lasts,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think these two forms complement each other beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDorabialski comes from the world of video art, where \u201cformal experimentation is not only kind of acceptable \u2013 it\u2019s necessary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCinema felt really exciting to me\u00a0precisely\u00a0because it has rules. There\u2019s a definite beginning and end time; there\u2019s a dark room and a screen. We\u2019re just brains in a void. I was excited by some of that formal restriction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWasikowska and Dorabialski both have Polish roots, but in the film, Agata heads to Sarajevo instead.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was interested in the idea of Slavic identity outside Eastern Europe and what it means to be part of this linguistic ethnic group,\u201d he explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMuch of my work has examined historical similarities throughout Eastern Europe, politically and linguistically. Bosnia and Poland are about as far apart as two Slavic cultures could be, but the concept of Eastern Europe is formed from outside that territory. It\u2019s always the West and the Anglophone world looking at this region and othering this group. I guess I\u2019m playing the insider-outsider game here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe knew that Wasikowska would be the right Agata.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPartly it\u2019s because she has this Polish-Australian connection, but primarily because of the way she chooses and approaches her roles. I knew she could handle the challenge of playing someone who\u2019s very pensive, restrained, quiet and detached.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cEven in the final act of the film, where there\u2019s nothing but Mia\u2019s face, we\u2019re still listening to the story and engaging with its content. Every time I watch it, I notice all the small decisions she made that give depth to her expressions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWasikowska hasn\u2019t really explored her roots before. Edward Zwick\u2019s \u201cDefiance,\u201d about a Jewish underground resistance movement, came the closest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI haven\u2019t had the opportunity to do that too much. But just from growing up, it\u2019s very familiar to me,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mum and grandma were immigrants, and I observed their experience of trying to find belonging while being nostalgic about Poland. I\u2019ve also traveled back to Poland many times. I connected with that in the script, and with Kuba. I understood the search for belonging and the feeling of being in between cultures even when somewhere feels familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s Agata\u2019s struggle as well, as she\u2019s desperately trying to figure out how to write about a conflict she hasn\u2019t experienced. And whether it even makes sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo me, what\u2019s meaningful is the intention of trying to understand other people and things we haven\u2019t lived through. That\u2019s what it means to be human. It\u2019s our responsibility to try to understand each other,\u201d says Wasikowska.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, according to Dorabialski, artists have a responsibility to respond to the world in which they live.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s not like you go to church and all your sins are forgiven just because you\u2019ve made an artwork about Gaza. But shouldn\u2019t we expect art to create change? I\u2019m not convinced that it does, especially in any kind of lasting, meaningful way. But artists have to do it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mia Wasikowska fills out the screen in Kuba Dorabialski\u2019s \u201cAgata the Writer.\u201d Metaphorically and figuratively, as one especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[264526,93,61,60,264527,130964,270,802],"class_list":["post-622841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-agata-the-writer","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kuba-dorabialski","tag-mia-wasikowska","tag-movies","tag-venice-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}