PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Rafal Lysak, director of the film Unconditional Love.
This is an intimate documentary about Lysak himself, a young gay man, and his 80-year-old grandmother, whose close and loving relationship is put to the test when he opens up about his sexual orientation to her. In this interview, Lysal discusses how making documentaries helped him deal with certain aspects of his life and communicate with others. He also talks about when he decided to make this particular film and when his grandmother, whose name is Teresa, agreed to be in it, among other things.
Unconditional Love: Grandma loves her grandson very much, and for this reason she patiently waits for God to rid him of his homosexuality. He understands that it does not make sense to blame her and quarrel endlessly, and so he responds to her expressions of dissatisfaction with silence and nervous laughter. The film captures the clash of old Catholic Poland with a new generation ready to fully adopt modern values. But it also casts a personal look at specific characters who breathe for themselves and who, despite their opposing feelings, try to find a way to live together. For these suggestive self-portraits Rafal Lysak has chosen a raw approach, using a handheld digital camera that does not invade the characters’ personal space in order to achieve a very intense experience that captures all the present emotions.
For the first time in its history, the Cannes Film Festival reveals two official posters for its 78th edition, inspired by Claude Lelouch’s 1966 Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece A Man and a Woman.
Alice Rohrwacher has been appointed President of the Caméra d’or Jury at Cannes 2025. Known for her poetic and visionary cinema, Rohrwacher will award the best first feature at the festival’s closing ceremony on May 24.