Shreds

It's snowing, the wind is blowing, and the longshots alternate with each other to create a sense of harmony. Soon, father and son appear in the frame. They are skiing. The echo of a harmonious existence is completely mirrored by the father-son relationship. It's just a matter of time before the harmony collapses.

Polish director Beata Dzianowicz, follows up on her 2018 feature debut On The Run, with Shreds, a family drama that takes place within a single family who are faced with a sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The illness becomes a great test for all the generations as Dzianowicz shows us step by step for 100 minutes how the psychological state of the characters is changed by by living on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The director divides the film into four parts. Winter, spring, summer and winter, time intervals that reveal a radical shift in behaviour, family relationships and the perception of the characters.

Professor Gerrard (Grzegorz Przybyl) lives with his son (Michał Żurawski), granddaughter Zoja (Pola Król) and daughter-in-law Bogna (Agnieszka Radzikowska). The family members constantly take care of each other, but their harmony is threatened by Gerard's strange behaviour. The director sometimes shows us the changes in Gerard's consciousness from his perspective, with the camera angle shifting. The shadows seen by Gerard create the feeling that he moves into a world that belongs to him about which others know nothing.

Breaking social conventions and norms at work, by using sunglasses while lecturing, or at home, when he walks in on his son and daughter-in-law having sex, everything that at first only causes laughter. However, when the disease worsens it becomes a huge challenge for the family. When, after forgetting words or struggling to control his behaviour violence breaks out events give the audience the impression that the house that Alzheimer destroyed, will be rebuilt.

Despite trying to collect the shreds, challenges remain. Dzianowicz always tries to equally divide attention between the father-daughter and father-son relationships. The emotional culmination here is reached every time by touching/hugging and this sense of touch is enhanced by Mikolaj Piotr Górecki's music.

It is snowing again, the father and son ski again, but this time, nothing is harmonious. Only inconclusive evidence that Alzheimer has destroyed the house.