Mecz

A ball on the red clay, two young people exchanging shots, a home where photographs and sporting objects remain. Mecz, also presented under the English title The Game, follows Adrian and Matylda at two stages of their lives. Adrian remembers the time he spent playing tennis and decides to return to the court with his wife.

In the present, Adrian moves through the rooms and pauses before images of the past. Rackets and trophies form part of the domestic setting; a rediscovered ball accompanies his wish to go out. The story moves from objects kept at home to the place where play can resume, following the preparations and glances of the two spouses.

On the court, Matylda and Adrian once again share a space divided by the net. The rally requires movement, waiting for the ball and responding to the other person’s gesture. Alongside the memory of playing in their youth come the physical conditions of the present: a racket lowers, a hand reaches towards a back, and Matylda asks her husband whether he is all right.

Tennis also accompanies the relationship between the characters. Getting ready to play and watching a partner involve them both, while the home and the court host different moments of their everyday lives. The short alternates the red clay with the domestic interior and the young figures with the older protagonists, setting what they remember alongside what they can do today.

Lesław Zamaro plays Adrian and Ewa Kania plays Matylda. Marcel Nowacki and Natalia Ratajczak portray the characters in their youth. These two pairs of performers accompany the different periods of the story, keeping the same names and their shared sporting activity at its centre.

Written and directed by Sebastian Szczygieł, Mecz is a Łódź Film School production. Augustyn Bardian is the cinematographer, Tymoteusz Mierzwiński the editor and Grzegorz Żyłka the composer. The film’s premise takes shape in Adrian’s wish to play another match with Matylda, between the objects he keeps and a return to an activity they have shared.