Nina Niovilla, with music by Maria Szymanowska

My surname has always been a mystery
I chose to diminutise Antonina
I was Nina Niovilla for history

In my country I was a film tsarina
The press named me the ‘Polish Germaine Dulac’
Translating plays was my starting arena

The Weimar Republic was still on full track
When I had my directorial film debut
My early works patriotism would unpack

In one I showed the Battle of Lemberg coup
I further used a ballad by Mickiewicz
Even the cabaret-act I would pursue

The Qui Pro Quo was the main cultural bridge
For Warsaw in the Interwar period
At that time film critics were hard to bewitch

Stefania Zahorska disliked a myriad
Of pictures, if not the entire medium
She saw it as histrionic material

She equated film to the music idiom
Supporting the new photogénie theory
Press aside, I found my equilibrium

With Youth Triumphs I explored romantic fury
It eventually became my last work
I was developing another glory

On In the Claws of Jackals I did embark
But the project never saw the light of day
To write, direct, act and produce was my mark

I created film schools but it caused dismay
Jan Czesław Sikorowicz, my employee
Was prosecuted for asking extra pay

It was a fraud addressed to students and me
I testified in court, I was just as scammed
After the case was closed, I had to break free

From the chatter that followed, that I hadn’t planned
I wanted to abandon the public eye
My filmmaking schools closed on the other hand

I returned to translating plays, I was shy
I now escaped the limelight and moved away
To Poland I ultimately said good-bye

My daughter was in France, with her I would stay
I was fond of Paris’ Épinettes neighbourhood
Where the Groupe des Batignolles would spend the day

In this place I finally felt understood
At Café Guerbois I had my reveries
Seeing myself as the Impressionists would.