Hi, Tereska

Writer/director Glinski pulls no punches in his portrait of a teenager who longs to be a fashion designer. Shot in b/w to underscore the greyness of the communist-era apartment blocks where Tereska lives, it also highlights the drab existence of her fellow tenants. In such desperate surroundings it seems fated that gradually but surely the girl's dreams will be dashed, as she's drawn into the world of delinquency already inhabited by those around her. If Gietner's remarkable performance is uncomfortably natural, it might be explained by the fact that both she and screen friend Renata (Sobczak) were cast from a Polish reform school.