Ekran: My Name Is Ki

As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. For Ki, a very distraught single mother (played by Roma Gasiorowska) she would rather have it made and squeezed for her. Realizing any money that she makes is dwindled away for drugs by her abusive dead-beat boyfriend, Ki’s mother is oblivious to what is happening to her daughter and insists she should marry him.

Breaking away, Ki continues to use her sob story of not getting a break, as a way of manipulating to get what she wants, by any means necessary. Moving into another apartment, Ki is confronted with a new roommate named Miko who is not easily swayed by her mischievous ways, but might be her only hope for some kind of happiness. However, with Ki’s inability to develop or even hold any kind of genuine human connection, her carefree attitude is finally put to the test.

So here are my thoughts on My Name Is Ki. First off, I was excited to see Roma take on a completely different role, as opposed to her cheery and optimistic persona in Listy do M. I thought she did a great job portraying such a cold and callous character. It was also interesting to get a sense of how the director, Leszek Dawid, wanted to explore breaking away from a patriarchal society and how the political, social and psychological landscapes intervene. Sadly, that’s the end of my praise.

The movie was very disjointed and certain scenes just ended out of nowhere, which actually became very annoying for me. Perhaps the director wanted to cut scenes short and leave it up to the audience to figure out what was happening, but it didn’t quite jive with me. I got the essence that the film was showing the complexity of ongoing struggle, but there is melancholy with a purpose and then just total gloom. I must say that even though the film for me was rather dull, I was invested in screaming at the TV screen because Ki is the type of person that everyone knows; the single ‘woe is me’ mother who is conniving and feels like the world owes her something. I would have liked to see some sort of development with Miko that felt genuine.

The entitlement complex is really the basis of Ki, yet if we peel off the layers, it’s all a sham and she’s just an insecure woman who has lost control and is holding on by a thread. One would admire such a woman of courage, but I cannot say that Ki’s character made me feel an ounce of sympathy. Harsh but true; the way you make your bed is the way you lie in it.