This article examines the representation of everyday violence against women in the films of Wojtek Smarzowski, one of the most progressive directors of contemporary Polish cinema. Historically, Polish cinema has marginalized women’s experiences, framing them through demeaning stereotypes, sexualization or idealization within the figure of the Polish Mother, while largely overlooking their struggles and the violence they endure. Drawing on Innes and Steele’s conceptualization of everyday violence as gendered, pervasive and normalized, this study explores how Smarzowski’s films bring these dynamics into focus. While his historical dramas, and Hatred (2016), broke taboos surrounding wartime sexual violence, this article highlights the centrality of everyday violence against women in his contemporary works. Utilizing the concept of rack focus, I analyze The Wedding (2004) and The Wedding Day (2021), tracing shifts in the depiction of female figures—specifically the wife and mother—and situating these changes within broader transformations in Polish societal attitudes toward violence against women.
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