The latest addition to my website is Rafał Wojasiński‘s Olanda (Olanda). We follow the stories of a group of mainly elderly people in a fairly remote Polish village. Most of them are fairly lost souls, detached from God and religion and, indeed, often from other people, including their spouse and children, drifting along. If they had a job, it was menial (gravedigger, sump emptier). They tend to be solitary more than lonely, aware of their situation but also more or less unconcerned about their poverty, isolation and impending death. Where they succeed is narrating the world to themselves and they succeed not just for themselves but for us. Each one is an individual and each one is an interesting person, even if not much has happened in their lives. Wojasiński brings out their individual narration to tell a superb story of people who do not. on the face of it, have much of a story to tell.
