At first glance, I’m tempted to drum up some connection or parallel between You Have No Idea How Much I Love You and last year’s Europe, She Loves. Both are European documentaries that engross themselves utterly in their subjects and return with captivating insights into modern humanity. However, aside from the size of its ambitions, You Have No Idea How Much I Love You emerges as a very different film.
Directed by Polish director Paweł Łozinski, this documentary frames itself around a series of therapy sessions between two women – Ewa and her estranged daughter Hana – and their therapist Professor de Barbaro.
Barbaro, as pivotal to the film as his subjects, helps the film glide along with some sense of structure. Every question he asks feels natural and understandable. His soft voice is the backbone of the film, with the reservoirs of emotion he’s able to summon from his patients filling out the space between his queries with ease.
It’s nowhere near as sprawling as Europe, She Loves but it definitely taps into that same vein of hyper-authenticity. There’s little to You Have No Idea How Much I Love You beyond the emotive close-ups on each of its three subjects and the introspective journey they embark upon.
This conscious constraint allows the micro-expressions and reactions of each figure to land with unadulterated impact. This aspect of the film’s style is further accentuated out by an absence of sound. Everything feels still and intimate. The camera invites you to stare through into the bared souls of its subjects.
Whether the turbulent relationship between Hana and Ewa reminds you of something in your own experience of not, the pair come across as profoundly relatable and – once you understand more of their respective backgrounds – tragic.
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You is probably not going to be a film for everyone. It’s slow-paced and some will likely tire of the cinematographic limitations Łozinski employs here. However, there’s so much to respect in the sense of craftsmanship behind this documentary and the commitment white-knuckled minimalism.
For those that can appreciate those aspects, Łozinski’s work is an ambitious and authentic dive into the deeply-personal that’s sure to resonate.
Review Score: THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You is screening at this year’s Sydney Film Festival on the 12th and the 18th of June. For more information about the festival and screening times, click HERE.
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