Red Yellow Pink *** (2020, David Paul, Agnieszka Salamon, Wojciech Galzinski, Adrian Koszewski) – Classic Movie Review 13,830

The 2020 Polish drama film Red Yellow Pink is the story of a gay son, his fanatically Catholic mother, his kindly estranged Jewish father, and his nice, tender-hearted new boyfriend.

‘Different worlds – a conflict is starting. Can love overcome all prejudices? A film against discrimination. A movie for acceptance.’

Co-writer/ director Jolanta Warpechowski’s Polish film Red Yellow Pink (2020) is the story of a son, his mother, his father, and his new boyfriend. The son is gay. The mother who brought him up alone is strictly, fanatically Roman Catholic, the estranged father is kindly Jewish, and the nice, tender-hearted new boyfriend has met him in a bar and fallen in love with him at first sight.

[Spoiler alert] The 26-year-old son (David Paul) persuades the gloomy and oppressive mother (Agnieszka Salamon) to leave their home in Vienna to go back to Krakow in Poland and reconnect with his father (Wojciech Galzinski) in the house where the boy grew up. But the actual reason he wants to go there is to attend the funeral of his first boyfriend, who has died of AIDS. New life seems to start up for Maciej (David Paul) when he meets Dawid (Adrian Koszewski) but it is almost all too late, as Maciej has been infected with the virus too.

I’m not sure how believable the seriously depressing story is, and it does feel like a throwback to another, worse era, one of those ghastly old gay movies where the hero has to die, is doomed to die. But nevertheless there are many convincingly emotional moments and effective scenes, much of it quite delicately and subtly handled, along the way to its appallingly depressing conclusion. Finally, there’s no ray of sunshine, no glint of hope.

Red Yellow Pink is exceptionally well meaning and sincere theme-wise as it takes accurately aimed pot-shots at religion (especially Catholicism) and prejudice (especially against gays), and particularly the situation in conservative-minded Poland. But as drama it starts and runs well till about half way but then turns into a bit of a pointless, old-fashioned wallow. Yet it is convincingly and involvingly acted, especially by the two boys, bringing warmth and making impact as they explain their characters’ connection and dilemmas, though Agnieszka Salamon and Wojciech Galzinski commendably make real characters out of thinly written caricatures, and are memorable.

The film is rushed and the pacing doesn’t quite work. The problem really is the script, and it lets its ambition sink it rather by moving way too fast in way too short a running time for full conviction. It needs an epic length to work, another half again as long, with more details, more explanations, and more characters, and just more. Nevertheless, Red Yellow Pink is a brave and intelligent attempt to tackle a whole bunch of serious and important issues in a compact, tidy, and meaningful form. The cast and crew work their butts off to make it work, and make it something special, so they deserve considerable respect and due attention.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,830

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