Mia Wasikowska plays Agata, a Polish-Australian writer, in “Agata the Writer,” a new film debuting at the Venice Film Festival. The film explores themes of writer’s block, immigrant identity, and trauma tourism.
The film, a debut from video artist Kuba Dorabialski, centers on Agata, a novelist who has achieved some success with satire but is now seeking a more earnest creative direction. She travels to Sarajevo, hoping to research a story about a father-daughter relationship during the Bosnian War, seeking “a Slavic similitude” between her Polish roots and the locale.
Upon arriving in Sarajevo, Agata feels out of place. The city is depicted as “wintry and severe,” presenting contrasts and a constant chorus of wind. The film is described as “elegant, slippery,” and likely to divide viewers with its narrative choices, but is considered a “bracingly singular” work at the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori sidebar. It is tonally similar to the Canadian Oscar submission “Nina Roza” and shares meta elements with Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island.”
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