Meet Lulla La Polaca, Poland's oldest drag queen and an inspiration for us all

Queeries is a weekly column by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queries LGBTQ art, culture and/or identity through a personal lens.

At 82 years old, Lulla La Polaca is Poland's oldest drag queen. Known out of drag as Andrzej Szwan, Lulla has witnessed everything from the Warsaw Uprising and the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And throughout it all, she has remained determined to live her life as out loud as possible — no small feat in a country where LGBTQ people still face some pretty extraordinary challenges (a 2021 study ranked LGBTQ rights in Poland as the worst in the European Union).

While Poland's queer communities have long known the joy of having Lulla in their lives, the world is getting an opportunity to as well. Having its world premiere this week at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, director Bogna Kowalczyk's documentary Boylesque presents an intimate and delightful portrait of Lulla that is sure to be a highlight of many film festivals to come. It also offers the hero's tribute that Lulla — who organized underground gay parties in communist Poland and enthusiastically took up drag in fiercely homophobic 1980s Poland — more than deserves.

"We hope people leave the film thinking that there is something to wait for, you know," Kowalczyk says. "That you can be 82 and still do fun stuff and more importantly ... still do new stuff."

"Lulla is special," adds Tomasz Morawski, the film's producer. "She is not following a pattern. She is this kind of link between young and old people, which is very special. That's why she loves life and wants to move and evolve. And also, at the same time, she's not afraid of having those situations in which she's not in the know. She wants to learn and that is a very big value, which a lot of people are forgetting about."

Lulla also doesn't wait for anyone's approval. A single gay may in his 80s out of drag, he goes out clubbing and looks for sex and love on Grindr and other dating apps. And at the same time, he doesn't fear death. The film beautifully follows a narrative in which he searches for the right artist to design a specialty crematorium urn in the shape of a stiletto heel. Watching them on screen —  in or out of drag — is wildly inspiring.

"If you are 82, you want his charisma," Morawski says. "I mean, not even his age, but in today's life too. Each time when I have the not-so-good moment, I'm just thinking... what Lulla would do? Come on, this guy is 82 and he does not allow anything to hold him back. Each day is a new one for him and he's always doing something new. That's absolutely amazing. I mean, he is really enjoying his life. And it doesn't matter if you are gay or left or straight or right, just do it. Just go see the movie and then do the same thing. Believe!"

Kowalczyk also hopes audiences leave the film more sensitive, even if just for a little while. 

"If it's about growing old or if it's about queer people living their lives," she says, "there are a lot of subjects that the film touches upon. But I like this idea of someone watching it and thinking 'Wow, life is complicated, isn't it? Should I maybe be a bit more reflective today?' This is my goal, I think."

This seems particularly important as homophobic and transphobic right-wing agendas seem to be ramping up all over the world, including in Poland.

"The vibe we have here is about tolerance rather than acceptance," Kowalczyk says. "It's a catchphrase. People say, 'I don't have anything against LGBT people but …' and then comes something. 'But ... they should not show it so much' or 'but ... I don't like them kissing on the street.'"

Boylesque offers the antithesis of these attitudes through its protagonist, a fearless leader in being whoever and whatever you want to be — who was also the audience member the filmmakers were most anxious to show the film to. 

"It's always a very challenging moment when you show the movie to the subject," Morawski says. "It's the moment in which years of your work can be totally destroyed."

This was not the case, as Lulla proclaimed after finishing the film: "You made a masterpiece! I loved it!"

"Having this kind of blessing was absolutely the best thing that we could get," Morawski says. "And the other thing, which really happened, was that he just walked out from the room where he saw the movie, and said, 'OK, I want to live again!' And I said, 'Man, you already are living, the carpe diem is happening all the time.' And he said, 'I know, but I'm going to do more!'"

Hopefully this suggests we'll get a sequel set during Lulla's 90s. 

Boylesque is screening May 8 at Hot Docs in person, and virtually through May 10.