7 Emotions

Marek Koterski’s film is the latest installment in the series about the Miauczynski family, with the main character—Adaś, an adult, frustrated man struggling to manage his own life and artistic ambitions. In this installment, the role of Adaś is played for the first time by Michał Koterski, the director’s son. Adaś is a typical representative of a generation grappling with disappointment, unfulfilled potential, and unrealized dreams. Previously, the character of Adaś was portrayed by Marek Kondrat, Włodzimierz Wysocki, and Cezary Pazura, but it is Michał Koterski, in the younger version, who takes the leading role in this genre-bending, grotesque tale. The film is filled with absurdity, grotesque humor, and satire of reality, heightened by the fact that adult actors play child roles. The events in the film are narrated by a therapist, played by Krystyna Czubówna—an icon of Polish dubbing, known from nature documentaries. Her voice, delivering simple, almost textbook-like sentences, becomes a tool that analyzes and explains the main character’s confusion, his problems with interpersonal relationships, and his failed emotional life. It serves as a kind of life manual that Adaś Miauczyński never had the chance to work through, with its warnings feeling like a neglected lesson that, although presented in the form of an elementary primer, was never completed.