“The Mothers of Penguins” or Polish Mothers of Fighters
Title: “The Mothers of Penguins” (TV series)
Date of Release: 2024
Director: Klara Kochańska, Jagoda Szelc
Cast: Masza Wągrocka, Barbara Wypych, Magdalena Różdżka, Tomasz Tyndyk
This series will move every parent, and certainly every mother, whose figure here, not coincidentally, is a professional boxer, wonderfully played by Masza Wągrocka. Because the Polish mother is a true fighter who fights constantly: against the education system, against discrimination, against financial difficulties, against lack of time and against the exorbitant standards of ideal parenting. Sometimes she also fights with other mothers to show that her plan for parenting is better and she is the one with the recipe for success. But in the enterprise called motherhood, success is never guaranteed, and after a victory paid for with a few bruises and a knocked-out tooth, you can receive an unexpected blow again. Especially if you are raising a child with special needs. Therefore, “Mothers of Penguins” rightly reminds us of the simple truth that as many children, as many different mothers, and mutual support is a better idea than competition and labeling. And all this without unnecessary shedding of tears, instead with a brilliantly balanced sense of humor, without which it is difficult to cope with the challenges of everyday life.
“Mothers of Penguins” – landing in Poland
The series “Mothers of Penguins” begins with a strong entrance and follows this rhythm until the last episode. Not surprisingly, the main character of the story is MMA fighter Kamila Barska (Masha Vagrocka), who, after another win in international competitions, returns to Poland to prepare for the most important fight of her career. If she fights a victorious duel in the US, the door of success will open for her. Meanwhile, landing in Poland turns out to be really difficult. The heroine’s seven-year-old son Jasiek (Jan Lubas) is expelled from school because he threw himself at his classmate for no reason. A visit to a psychologist results in an unequivocal diagnosis: “autism spectrum disorder,” which causes the doors of more educational institutions to slam shut with a bang, even if you have to pay seven thousand a month for tuition.
The only place where Jasiek is admitted without unnecessary questions turns out to be an integrated school with a warm-sounding name: “Miracle Haven.” The boy is placed in the “Penguin” class, which is mostly attended by children with disabilities, but also students without particularly visible problems. There is, among others, Tola (Tola Będzikowska), a girl with Down Syndrome, whose always well-groomed and elegant mother (played by Barbara Wypych) tries to cope with overwhelming everyday life by running a popular Internet blog. There is the sensitive Helenka (Amelia Sarzynska) with an undiagnosed genetic defect making it difficult for her to function, raised by her single father (Tomasz Tyndyk). Michal (Maksymilian Młodawski), who is above-average in intelligence and suffers from muscular dystrophy, also attends Miracle Haven. His mother Tatiana (Magdalena Różdżka) has to take care of him around the clock, so even when the child is at school, she waits for a call from the teacher to help her son use the restroom.
“The Mothers of Penguins” – heroic heroines of everyday life
As a mother, I could not watch this series without emotion, I could not distance myself for a moment. Because “Mothers of Penguins” is first and foremost a story about Polish mothers who, when facing serious problems, especially such as raising a child with special needs, do not have social support. They can then not always or rather very rarely count on a partner, sometimes their parents help them, and sometimes they are left completely alone in the ring of everyday life. No one asks them if they were ready for it, how they feel, if they have the mental resources, health, money to embrace it all. They have to embrace, and they embrace, because they are cool.
In the process, they get constant blows: from school, from a cheating partner, or from complete strangers who prefer to pretend they don’t see what they’re up against. These are not the phantom mothers from colorful advertisements and magazine covers, but women hard at work every day to provide their children with a substitute for a normal life. For themselves, there is not much left, although they sometimes manage to have a cup of coffee, go to the hairdresser or get their nails done. They have to be constantly ready to fight with everyone and for everything, so sometimes they don’t see that they happen to hit each other. It’s as if they don’t notice that despite the fact that they are excluded and isolated everywhere, it is in the group that there is strength and support. In Klara Kochanska and Jagoda Szelc’s series, I even see a call for women mothers to finally come together and look at themselves and other women with more understanding and love.
“Mothers of Penguins” – the need for social therapy
However, I want to emphasize that “Mothers of Penguins”, despite the gravity of the subject that the series takes up, is at no time marked by suffering. On the contrary, this production is not a tear squeezer, but an energetic kick and full of warm humor, a therapeutic story about the fact that one can give advice. What’s more, disability here is not the domain of the characters, but of the entire social system. Disabled and limping is a world in which the weak cannot count on real support and understanding. I have the impression that in addition to the figure of the battered warrior woman, the series operates another significant symbol in this matter. It is an inclusive school, that is, a place where we should all go to teach ourselves and our own children mutual tolerance of all otherness. Therefore, “Mothers of Penguins” is a series that is not only interesting, entertaining and motivating, but above all necessary and important.