Do Not Look Away. A meeting with Arkadiusz Jakubik.
Crowds of people gathered in the small hall at the Cultural and Congress Centre Jordanki, in the first evening of the festival, to attend a meeting with one of our special guests. Arkadiusz Jakubik, this year’s winner of a Golden Angel for Artistic Insolence, was eager to answer questions from journalists and the audience. Not all of them were about “Clergy” by Wojtek Smarzowski, mind you. After the official end of the conference, he took time to talk briefly to some more inquisitive viewers, pose for photos with them, or give an autograph.
Work for a Puppeteer
Before the meeting took a turn into more serious topics, the actor indulged the audience with a handful of anecdotes from the rather bumpy beginnings of his professional career. He jumped back to the middle of 1990s, when was unable to find any work in film or theatre, no matter how hard he tried. For quite some time, he was living off his wife.
When going through his CV, any potential employer would immediately associate his graduating from the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow, branch in Wroclaw, with only one field the theatrical life of Wroclaw was famous for – puppetry. Arek had to explain that he was no puppeteer, as the academy also had the Faculty of Acting. It is worth mentioning that since that time crème de la crème of Polish actors have received a thorough education at that institution, for example Robert Wieckiewicz or Eryk Lubos.
Arek Jakubik offered some details about his very first meeting with Wojtek Smarzowski, which was on the set of “Małżowina,” where he worked as an extra portraying “a dosser from Praga district.” At first glance, the director took him for a real homeless person. Later on, when the two became friends and Jakubik had abandoned all hope he would ever get hired for any serious film (at the time, he did all kinds of jobs, including programmes for children), he got a chance to become an assistant director in “The Treatment”, a successive project of Wojtek Smarzowski produced for Teatr Telewizji.
By that twist of fate, he started his meteoric career from “the imbecile from Polsat TV channel” – which is how Arkadiusz sees himself at the time he played in a TV series “13 posterunek” – through characteristic “supporting roles”, to more sophisticated dramatic roles.
Recollecting Goes On
“Krótka historia o miłości / The Simple Story about Love” was screened in the Main Competition of the 35th edition of the Gdynia Film Festival, in 2010. One of the journalists remembered an interview she had to do with Arkadiusz Jakubik, which was her first meeting with the actor. It had not been until they were both surrounded by a horde of paparazzi, near an exit leading to the beach, that the then journalist for “Aktualności filmowe” programme finally realised the stature of the actor.
Arek still has a DVD copy of the film, which has a quote from a review published by Barbara Hollender taped on its cover. The quote says – A beautiful film by a sensitive person. The quote was often ridiculed among the members of the Jakubik family, and his sons would address his dad as “a sensitive person” long after that.
When talking about the atmosphere among the members of his family, Jakubik said that they were always very warm-hearted and capable of looking at things from a distance, even in the face of scandals that concerned him. After an interview, in which the actor criticised John Paul II for ignoring the problem of paedophilia in the Catholic Church, one of his sons enthusiastically welcomed Arkadiusz at home saying: We have a new surname! As it turned out, one of the right-wing newspapers had entered the actor on “a list of dangerous Jews” and “identified” him as “an Aaron Goldstein.”
The Inevitable Topic
The actor and director also talked about other situations, which originated from that “papal controversy.” One of such consequences was a problem with buying a plot to bury the ashes of his father, at a parish cemetery. Albeit quite lightweight, such stories led to the inevitable topic that was on everybody’s lips – the issue of “Clergy,” which both the actor and the audience knew would eventually come.
The script written for the film by Wojtek Smarzowski shocked the actor. The first reason for that was a story related to a close friend of Arek Jakubik, a fellow musician, which he remembered after reading the script. According to Arek Jakubik, the man ruined his life completely, and was barely able to survive on an invalidity pension. It was only a few years back that the man finally admitted to have been sexually abused by a priest at their local parish in Strzelce Opolskie, a home town of Arek Jakubik.
When the actor told the story to the media, the local curia contacted him and he supported them in identifying the perpetrator. Unfortunately, since the victim is now over 30 years of age, the case falls under the statute of limitations, in the eyes of the Polish legal system. Any compensation was out of the question, and it all ended with a letter of apology.
Although the actor can see a window for some changes in the Polish Catholic Church, he seems to be disillusioned about such an initiative ever originating from inside the Church. He believes that the proper government bodies, public prosecutors, and public opinion must act first. According to a quote from a certain journalist, the winner of this year’s Golden Angel described “Clergy” as “an avalanche that no institution would ever stop.” To further prove it, he mentioned some of the actions undertaken by Pope Francis, such as dismissing the entire Chilean episcopate for sweeping the problem of sexual abuse in the Church under the carpet, among others.
The Time of Summarising
The whole meeting ended with a music accent. It was related to the latest album recorded by Dr Misio, a band started by Arkadiusz Jakubik, under a characteristic title “Zmartwychwstaniemy” (We Will Be Resurrected). A video clip to support the title single is supposed to come by the end of the year. As for the actor himself, after reflecting a little on patriotism, career, and his own mortality, he summarised it all with a zest: One needs to know when to leave the stage undefeated.
Dawid Smyk
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