Asian Premiere
2012 FilmFestival Cottbus, Grand Prix / 2012 Film Festival Kinopolska, Audience Award


 Synopsis
 

 Halina, a modest casher in a chain store is dreaming of a better life for herself and her gifted 13 years old daughter - Misia. She soon gets her chance as Halina becomes the store manager. She discovers that the price for a higher salary and a better standard of living is dishonesty, manipulation and deceit. She turns from victim to villain to her former
 casher friends. She is so consumed with her work that she fails to notice her daughter’s addiction to computer games. She will soon have to start her journey for forgiveness. 

Program Note

Women’s Day is a Polish version of Cart (Dir. Boo Jiyoung, Korea, 2014), presenting a story about the women workers becoming self-conscious of their working conditions at the supermarket and standing against the unjust system. In terms of genre, while Cart takes a serious approach to melodrama, Women’s Day has a western-look with some comic elements. In addition, Cart has a collective and communal narrative that does not heroize a specific individual while Women’s Day focuses on Halina, a retail cashier who used to be the archetypal victim of society, capitalism, men, family, environment, and system, showing how she becomes a solitary heroine fighting against injustice after developing self-awareness. It will add extra fun to compare and contrast two films (of the women, by the women, for the women) with similar topics made at around the same time. Halina is a single mother and head of household who dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter, Misia. She finally has the chance of getting promoted to store manager and soon discovers that the price for a higher salary and a better standard of living is dishonesty, manipulation, and deceit. Halina, the victim-turned-villain becomes so mean to her old cashier friends and fails to notice her daughter is getting addicted to computer game. This ordinary middleaged woman who has been passively doing things she was told to do in order to make ends meet eventually learns how to refuse simply being a “sweet little girl,” a loyal employee, a nice mother and lover. By showing how she becomes a charismatic warrior finding her inner power, the film fills the audience with catharsis. Especially the final scene set in the corridor of the court is the crucial moment in the confrontation of the fired women workers with a group of male workers from the headquarter in the form of a face to face duel-like encounter in the western film genre. [CHO HyeYoung]