A film by Kristina Benjocki and Stijn Verhoeff,
4K single channel, stereo sound, 38 minutes, 2025
The film Echa (Polish for "Echoes") is made for the exhibition Human Nature by Magdalena Abakanowicz at Het Noordbrabants Museum, in Den Bosch. It is a poetic meditation on the weight of history and the fragility of the natural world. Inspired by the memoir of Magdalena Abakanowicz, the film follows a character who exists in shifting forms — as a child, an adult and an older woman — blurring the lines between past and present, self and inheritance. Like echoes lingering in the landscape, trauma reverberates across generations, shaping memory and our connection to the environment. Yet, in confronting these echoes, the character begins to break away, forging a future untethered from the past. Echa is an ode to resilience, renewal, andthe quiet defiance of rewriting one’s story.
A fiction film by
Kristina Benjocki and Stijn Verhoeff
Inspired by the life and work of
Magdalena Abakanowicz
With
Irena Wójcik
Joanna Niemirska
Ninel Kos
Spoken language: Polish
Length: 38 minutes
Director of Photography: Casper Brink
Music and sound: Sjoerd Leijten
Bass clarinet: Fie Schouten
Producer: Julia Sokolnicka
Editors: Daria Kiseleva and Stijn Verhoeff
Text: Kristina Benjocki and Stijn Verhoeff including two excerpts by Magdalena Abakanowicz and one excerpt by Svetlana Alexievich
Translation from English to Polish: Misia Halwa
Casting: Kristina Benjocki, Julia Sokolnicka and Stijn Verhoeff
Costumes: Kristina Benjocki and Julia Sokolnicka
Lights and set design: Dietmar Gunne
Hair & make-up concept: Aleksandra Dutkiewicz
Catering: Elżbieta Sztejter and Beata Wojtkowska
Film locations: Dom Echa, Poland and Białowieża Forest, Poland
Special thanks to:
The Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation
Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation
Supported by:
Mondriaan Fund - Public Fund for Visual Art and Cultural Heritage
Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation
Production:
Gneisspecker and Studio Kristina Benjocki
Co-production:
Het Noordbrabants Museum
copyrights by Gneisspecker and Studio Kristina Benjocki