The Pawnshop

Jola and Wiesiek run Poland’s largest pawnshop. They love each other, but now times are tough and bankruptcy looms. Even though they drive a hard bargain with their sometimes desperate costumers, there is always humanity at the core. Bittersweet docu-comedy shining a beautiful light in the darkness.

‘We buy and sell almost everything,’ the sign outside the pawnshop in a run-down industrial town in Poland says. From washing machines to a mammoth’s tooth and from tracking medals to erotic paperback novels. ‘We’ve got a zillion things to choose from,’ says Jola, who together with her husband Wiesiek runs the pawnshop. Jola and Wiesiek love each other dearly, but now that their business is hitting on hard times, their marriage is under strains.

Meanwhile, their three employees have dreams and difficulties of their own. Young and confident Agnieszka left her abusive man together with their small child. And between Roxy and Tomek, warm feelings emerge. But now Tomek has to go to jail for six months, and Roxy is not sure if she wants to wait. Warm, often very funny documentary about finding solidarity in poverty, and caring for people when they need it the most.