Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Filip Raczyński (Ignacy Liss) is enjoying his late 20s. We meet him at a modeling job, this job was given to him with his bright eyes and soft jawline, good looks that are visible with a biker jacket and hair dyed. He has vodka and Diet Coke for breakfast and powder in an Uber to his next job. At night we follow him in the back rooms of the club, until he finds the naked men who are as handsome as him. He loses himself in them and does not worry about anything.
It’s not fun being in Filip’s company. Olek (Kamil Studnicki) working with his agent, has to cover for Filip’s lateness, and the next night of the odyssey group, he has to take care of his misbehaving dog, because Filip just saved him from a drug dealer who started forcing him to pay a debt. In the meantime, Filip was ready to return his young children from the house, at that time, he was not living with Anka’s (Sylwia Boroń) siblings, Tosia. Filip collapses in their apartment, and does not keep his promise to help them with the dishes and laundry.
The high point of Pride is that Anka dies and Filip is able to take care of and look to take young Tosia, but it takes the whole first episode to get there. As the tragedy descends, we get to know Filip better and he has the same responsibility as his friends and family – not as angry or upset as we should be, because he is so cruel. Get him straight and turn him around 20 years in London, and he could be the protagonist of a racy romcom starring Hugh, or Richard E, Grant. The child must be the child’s salvation.
Pride – created and directed by Karol Klementewicz and co-written by Monika Pęcikiewicz – is more dangerous than it can be set. That said, it loses something when shown outside of Poland. In Britain – even a backward society, come 2026 – viewers often scoff at the idea of a gay man raising a child, although they may raise their eyebrows at the practice. In Poland, the whole idea is counter-cultural and legally difficult, as we see when the lawyer advises Filip that if he wants to prevent Tosia from being taken away from him – which Filip is very afraid of, since he and Anka grew up unhappy in foster care after their mother died and their father left – he should “stop being gay for a while”.
The show likes to throw in dark humor like this, along with some hilarious slapstick. Filip turns to the model audition and is asked to take off his underwear, but he is not wearing anything so he stands there naked, leading to a terrible photo gag when the funniest possible thing happens; The swimming scene on Poland’s answer to This Morning ends with difficulty as Filip’s medication enters.
Mainly, however, Proud deals with pain, shame and longing for connection. The chosen family Filip is left behind when all his natural family has gone to paint with love, from the poor faithful Olek, who pretends to be a cannibal but is really, as he reveals when he shoots a piano-cabaret cover of Creep and Radiohead, a sweet soul broken by unrequited love; makeup artist Kiki (Maria Sobocińska), who apparently had her youngest daughter and never knew any life skills she didn’t raise. They are not perfect but they love Philip, and their love language endures him.
It’s a convincing ensemble, and the scenes with Tosia are so good and believable, you’d almost call Alicja Lewczuk a great actress, even if she didn’t have the power to speak yet. Also knowing how to use his team, Klementewicz elevates Proud’s audiovisual image to the cinematic through the use of closeups, moments of silence, and an unforgettable image: Filip, who was on the dancefloor when the hospital heard the bad news, leaves a trail of glitter on his sister when he kisses her.
At the end of the third episode – which closes with a montage of Filip and Tosia, best heard by Kae Tempest’s Hold Your Own – we are in the arena, ready to fight with Filip as he makes a ton of mistakes we will happily forgive.
