Her Will Be Done by Julia Kowalski

Last updated on June 9, 2025

A film by Julia Kowalski

With: Maria Wróbel, Roxane Mesquida, Wojciech Skibiński, Kuba Dyniewicz, Przemysław Przestrzelski, Raphaël Thiéry, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Éva Lallier, Laurence Côte

Nawojka, 20, dreams of escaping her harsh life working at the family farm. Under the influence of the free-spirited Sandra, Naw experiences trance-like episodes and strange powers, just like her dead mother before her…

Our rate: ***

Julia Kowalsi‘s previous short film (J’ai vu le visage du diable) was already promising – the prominent reference to The Exorcist in particular – and the promise is confirmed with Her Will Be Done. The young Franco-Polish director claims to have drawn on the American cinema of the 70s, Friedkin again, no doubt, but also De Palma, mixed with her Polish influences (Zulawski more than Polanski, in our opinion, or the Polanski who co-wrote with Skolimowski). It’s an atmospheric cinema, where motif plays a central role, where scarlet blood colors bodies driven by external powers that escape them, and fire illuminates striking faces. Surprisingly, however, as we had already noted in J’ai vu le visage du diable, French influences also make themselves felt, whether it be Seria‘s Ne nous delivrez pas du mal, with its close title, of which the film could be something of a cousin, or Pialat‘s Under the Sun of Satan, but above all Dumont‘s interest in mysticism in a rural, traditional setting (Petit quinquin, Hadejwisch, Hors Satan) and, by extension, Bresson, or even Dreyer. While the film takes time to introduce its characters, and introduces a false formal, quasi-naturalistic lead, its intensity rises to a crescendo as we discover what young Nawojka is feeling and experiencing. We see the whole film from her point of view, as she is lost in a harsh world where evil (and evil itself) is on the prowl. The result is convincing and successful, and the film could well have claimed a place in the competition.