Floating Skyscrapers

Kuba, Mateusz Banasiuk, has spent the last fifteen years training as a swimmer, his days consumed by discipline and routine. One evening after a grueling session, his girlfriend Sylwia, Marta Nieradkiewicz, drags him to an art exhibition, clearly showing reluctance. Kuba steps outside to smoke a joint, where he meets Michał, Bartosz Gelner; the two strike up a conversation that sparks Sylwia’s guarded interest. Later, the three drift to a basement with a small group of attendees, and Kuba asks Sylwia to take him home, setting a tentative, complicated mood for what follows.

The next morning, Kuba’s mother Ewa, Katarzyna Herman, pushes for Sylwia to move out of the apartment she owns. The relationship between the two women is tense, underscored by Ewa’s exasperation at Sylwia taking a long shower. Kuba defends Sylwia, noting she helps with the rent and that he wants her to stay, but the pressure only grows. Later, at the gym, Kuba unconsciously watches the other men training, and after a shower, he experiences an intimate moment with another man in a bathroom cubicle—an event that is hinted at earlier in the film. He enjoys the encounter but resists a kiss, and he storms out, only to meet Sylwia later at the restaurant where she works.

That evening, as Kuba and Sylwia are about to have sex, Michał calls and asks Kuba to meet him. Sylwia complains, but Kuba explains that he has to go, and Michał picks him up near the Trasa Toruńska. In a smoky parking garage, the two talk honestly as they share a joint; Kuba reveals he has been with Sylwia for two years. They drive to the top of the garage and stay there into the next morning. The following day, Kuba swims in the pool under the watchful eye of his coach, who urges him to swim with the same focus and determination to win the upcoming competition and qualify for the team.

Kuba and Michał later explore a train yard, riding a moving freight train for a rush of carefree rebellion. Sylwia waits at the pool, anxious but silent, as Kuba’s world becomes increasingly tangled. After a forest run the next morning, Kuba invites Michał for lunch at his house, where a quiet, tense meal unfolds in the living room with Sylwia present but mostly absent from the conversation. That evening, Michał confesses to his mother that he loves Kuba, though he fears telling his father.

At the swimming competition, Kuba outpaces the field but suddenly stops mid-way on the third lap, leaving his coach puzzled and calling out in concern. He leaves the pool in tears and heads to Michał’s building, where he watches Michał smoke on the balcony. Outside the elevator, a man taunts Kuba with a homophobic slur, and Kuba confronts him, beating him and denying that he is gay. Later that night, Michał comes out to his own family and proclaims his love for Kuba while a car speeds along a highway.

Kuba finally confesses his relationship to his mother, but she rejects him, Cold and distant. She then learns that Sylwia is pregnant, and she pushes Kuba to take responsibility and secure a job to support them, insisting he cut ties with Michał. Reluctantly, Kuba ends things with Michał over the phone while Sylwia stands quietly nearby, the tremor of impending change hanging in the air.

In a pivotal moment, Michał has a heart-to-heart with his father in which the title’s meaning is discussed, adding a layer of meaning to the film’s central tension. He then returns to the parking garage, where he is ambushed by a group of men led by the same aggressor Kuba once faced. Michał is brutally assaulted, his head repeatedly struck on the cement floor, and he dies from the violence.

The film closes with Kuba and Sylwia in a bathtub together. After a brief shoulder massage, she turns to face him and they exchange a long, unreadable stare before Kuba rises, steps out of the tub, and walks away, leaving the viewer with a quiet, unresolved emotional residue. This ending reframes the earlier choices and consequences, underscoring themes of love, responsibility, and the cost of secrecy.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 06:48