GLORIOUS SUMMER
Directors: Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak
Cast:Helena Ganjalyan, Magdalena Fejdasz, Daniela Komędera, Weronika Humaj
Crew:Writers: Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak; Producers: Maria Gołoś, Monika Matuszewska; Cinematography: Tomasz Woźniczka; Editor: Alan Zejer; Production Designer: Katarzyna Tomczyk; Costume Designers: Małgorzata Karpiuk, Zuzanna Kot
Email:maria.rozbratfilms@gmail.com
Synopsis
A sun-drenched Renaissance palace. Three women exist in an airy state of suspension, a liminal, responsibility-free bubble, where summer never ends. An enigmatic system fulfills all their needs - providing food, entertainment and a daily routine focused on wellness affirmations. There’s just one rule: they are forbidden to cross the surrounding wall. Soon, cracks begin to appear in this idyllic picture: using a ‘touch language’ - as some things can't be said out loud, secretly practicing how to die, which is supposed to be their ticket to ‘another place’. Long-suppressed anger and a desperate need to escape emerge. Will the girls, raised in a state of perpetual immaturity, manage to break free from the boundaries enforced by the system?
Trailer
About the directors
Helena Ganjalyan - Director, actress, and choreographer of Polish-Armenian origin, born in 1988 in Yerevan. She graduated from the Acting Department of the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Kraków and trained as a dancer at the State Ballet School in Gdańsk. She creates original film and theatre projects and works with other directors as a choreographer and movement director. In a directing duo with Bartosz Szpak, she has worked on international commercial projects and co-directed their debut feature ‘Glorious Summer.’ Her practice combines film, theatre, and movement as interconnected forms, with a focus on detail, rhythm, and perspective, using unexpected combinations to create layered, expressive storytelling.
Bartosz Szpak - Director and composer, a graduate of the Acting Department at the National Film School in Łódź. He works with Helena Ganjalyan as a creative duo, making films, music videos, and commercials. They are currently developing two feature films: ‘Two Peas’ and ‘Heavyland’. With a background in music composition and audio directing, he takes a multidisciplinary approach to storytelling, with a strong focus on dialogue and rhythm. He composed the original scores for ‘Glorious Summer’ (SXSW 2025) and for ‘Il Maestro’ by Andrea di Stefano (Venice Film Festival 2025).
Filmmakers' note
You wake up. The sun is shining. You eat what you want. You don’t have to do anything - no decisions, no obligations, no expectations. You know exactly what awaits you, and every day looks the same.
‘Glorious Summer’ portrays a world without responsibility, built on apparent peace, stability, and detachment from everyday problems. It is a space where only the ‘here and now’ matters, shaped by the language of positive affirmation. The film asks whether such comfort is worth sacrificing freedom, agency, and the possibility of experiencing life in its full complexity.
We follow three women whose lives unfold within a closed environment, limited to what is within their sight. They share one space, completely cut off from the outside world.
They are not expected to act, only to ‘be.’ Their emotional vocabulary is restricted to what they can name; feelings like pain, sadness, or anger have effectively been erased.
This carefully designed system responds to a world of overstimulation and excess. It promises moderation, predictability, and permanence - a controlled environment with a predefined set of values. Familiar ideas from mindfulness and wellness culture are pushed to the edge of absurdity, shaping a reality where doubt, desire, and questioning are eliminated.
Yet over time, the complexity of human nature begins to break through. The film raises a central question: can a life without contrast, tension, or uncertainty still feel truly positive? ‘Glorious Summer’ becomes a reflection on responsibility, freedom, and the role they play in shaping maturity and the process of becoming an adult.