I’m still standing | “Still Here” review

The producer of the series is Izabela Łopuch, whose name has for many years graced the best productions for major streaming services, especially those with a Polish accent. Still Here is one of several examples of cooperation between Łopuch and Jakub Żulczyk, who in Still Here wrote the script inspired by Piotr Fiedler’s novel, Czułość. All episodes were directed by Jacek Borcuch.

Still here tells the tragicomic fate of a forty-year-old playboy, an urban legend who constantly struggles with reality, trying to grasp the meaning of his own existence in the modern world. Franek Czułkowski aka Czuły (played by Borys Szyc) is a deeply complex character – an irresponsible party boy, a serial seducer and at the same time everyone’s friend. With a head full of dreams and a talent for writing, Czuły stole the hearts of Generation X, but did not mature. Having and then losing everything, he tries to make sense of the modern world – all in the company of the city’s most interesting characters. Franek is an urban legend, a man who struggles with everyday reality, a hangover, and the consequences of his melancholy. At the same time, he intellectualizes his existence and tries to be a friendly soul for everyone close to him (but also randomly encountered). As a comforter, a charmer, and a key-opener of doors to happiness, he is a ubiquitous good soul. The character, introducing himself in the series, says: “It is my role to show people life, to stop them in their tracks. I push them to warmth, I know how to walk down the road full of sunshine and completely let go, stop thinking… I haven’t been thinking since I can remember.”

The series definitely puts the character of Frank in the main place and treats everyone else as a background to what pleasures the Warsaw fate cooks up for Franek. In addition to Szyc, the series stars; Maja Pankiewicz, Zofia Wichłacz, Marianna Zydek, Piotr Polak, Jakub Wieczorek, Jerzy Skolimowski, Ilona Ostrowska, Krystyna Janda, Jan Peszek, Marta Ścisłowicz, Tomasz Włosok, Andrzej Zieliński and others. It is difficult to designate any specific target for this production, it is certainly a series that may alienate some viewers by the decisions made by the creators at the very beginning. Nevertheless, this series should not be treated as some form of showcase of Warsaw and the lives of its residents. Thinking of Still Here in this way will not be of any service in the final reception of the production. The series has everything that stereotypical thinking about partying in Warsaw can bring, but nevertheless there is a noticeable distancing of the creators from the material parts of its history, which take the form of solicitations to tell other things.

The events in the series receive, as a background, the voice of the main character, who, like a narrator, adds details and necessary context to the events we see on screen. A very valid comparison was used by Jakub Jaworski in his circa-premiere review in Głos Kultury – “Piotr Fiedler, the author of Czułość, a 2015 book from which Jacek Borcuch and Jakub Żulczyk’s series draws handfuls, even in such obvious elements as the serialized name of the main character, is responsible for the idea and characters of Still Here. That’s probably why the atmospheric introductions and endings of Still Here watch a bit like unmemorable cut-scenes from Grand Theft Auto, in which the protagonist-narrator talks about his iconoclastic life on the edge.” It is the striking narrative treatments, taken straight out of the Rockstar Games series, that add much to the quality of Łopuch, Borcuch and Żulczyk’s production.