How to Live and Not Go Crazy: Polish Family, Modern Chaos

Lede

A Polish comedy I nearly skipped entertained me by turning a familiar family crisis into a collision between old expectations and modern life.

Hermit Off Script

I don’t usually take chances with films outside my preferred genres. There are already enough disappointing films inside them, so why go looking for more trouble? But How to Live and Not Go Crazy (Jak żyć, żeby nie zwariować, 2026) was a pleasant surprise. It entertained me, and, more importantly, it had that Eastern European flavour which I feel much of Western cinema left behind years ago.
What caught my attention wasn’t simply the divorce or the family chaos. It was the way tradition, religion, age and a newer understanding of family life all occupied the same space, with nobody quite agreeing on which century they were supposed to be living in. That mixture can produce a special kind of comedy. The older generation knows perfectly well that its children have grown up, married and had children of their own. Then divorce enters the conversation, and suddenly everybody behaves as though the grown-up child has just announced the end of civilisation.
I find that genuinely funny because, in much of the West, this particular shock has already been used, recycled and put away. Divorce isn’t exactly news. That doesn’t mean Western families have solved their problems or become wonderfully enlightened. Far from it. They have simply had longer to get used to some of these arguments. What might still create a storm at one family table barely raises an eyebrow at another.
And that is what I liked here. The humour comes from generations living under the same roof, or at least under the same family expectations, while following completely different rules. One person wants to get on with life. Someone older wants to save the family as they remember it. Religion and tradition are part of the atmosphere, but so are independence, ageing and starting again. Each side is convinced the other has lost its mind.
I wasn’t expecting a film like this to win me over. Yet it managed to be funny without needing some enormous cinematic invention. Just family, contradictions and the terrifying possibility that an adult might actually make an adult decision.
In this comedy, divorce is one person’s new chapter and the rest of the family’s apocalypse.

Jak żyć, żeby nie zwariować [How to Live and Not Go Crazy] (2026) – Trailer

Film synopsis

Anka appears to have a comfortable life: a husband, children, a job she enjoys and a flat in the city centre. Then her marriage falls apart, she loses her job, her children become harder to understand and a bailiff takes an interest in her home.
With the life she knew collapsing around her, Anka must decide whether to give in to despair or start again on her own terms, finding the courage and humour to face what comes next.

Cast and credits

Director: Tomasz Konecki and Iwona Ogonowska-Konecka
Writers: Karolina Szymczyk
Genre: Comedy
Main cast: Magdalena Popławska, Piotr Rogucki, Kamil Szeptycki, Piotr Trojan, Dorota Kolak, Krzysztof Stelmaszyk, Barbara Wypych
Composer: Paweł Lucewicz
Production company/studio: ATM Grupa; Polish distributor: Monolith Films
Runtime: 98 minutes
Release year and platform: 2026; Polish cinema release on 23 October 2026. No streaming platform confirmed.

What does not make sense

• A grown child is apparently old enough to marry and raise children, but not old enough to make a decision about divorce without a family emergency meeting.
• Family traditions are presented as permanent laws, until real life comes along and asks whether they still help anyone.
• Parents say they want their children to be happy, then become deeply suspicious when happiness takes a different route.
• The West can act as though it has outgrown these arguments, even while its own families continue fighting over much the same things.

Sense check / The numbers

1. The film opened in Polish cinemas on 23 October 2026, following a Warsaw premiere event on 22 October. [ATM Grupa]
2. Its listed running time is 98 minutes. [Cinema City]
3. The production credits name 2 directors, Tomasz Konecki and Iwona Ogonowska-Konecka, and 1 screenwriter, Karolina Szymczyk. [ATM Grupa]
4. The official synopsis gives Anka at least 3 major pressures at once: her husband’s infidelity, the loss of her job and a threat to her flat, alongside the demands of family life. [Monolith Films]

The sketch

Scene 1: Old enough for everything except divorce
A grown daughter stands beside two small children’s chairs. Her elderly mother sits beneath an enormous framed wedding photograph.
Dialogue:
Daughter: “I’m getting divorced.”
Mother: “But you’ve already got children!”
Daughter: “Yes. That’s usually how the years work.”

Scene 2: Modern, within reason
At a family table, a thick book labelled “Tradition” sits next to a phone showing the year 2026. Everyone leans towards the daughter.
Dialogue:
Mother: “We raised you to be independent.”
Daughter: “Then I’ll make my own decision.”
Mother: “Let’s not get carried away.”

Scene 3: The joke has different ages
Two fictional living rooms sit side by side. In one, a couple barely look up from the television. In the other, three generations hold a dramatic family meeting.
Dialogue:
Western sofa: “Divorce? We’ve heard that one.”
Family table: “Emergency meeting!”
Daughter: “It’s my life, remember?”

What to watch, not the show

• The way family concern can become control, even when it comes from love.
• The tension between sincere religious belief and using tradition to make somebody else’s decisions.
• How age changes people’s expectations of marriage, duty and independence.
• Why a joke that feels old in one culture can still have a sharp edge in another.
• The mistaken belief that making divorce more ordinary also makes its emotional consequences disappear.

The Hermit take

I came for a film I wouldn’t normally choose and stayed for the family chaos I recognised.
The West may have retired the joke, but the relatives haven’t.

Keep or toss

Keep.

Keep the film’s lively clash of old and new.
Toss the idea that growing up means having to ask the family for permission to start again.

Disclaimer: This is personal cultural commentary on a film. The comic-strip scenes are fictional satire, not scenes presented as actual footage or dialogue.

Sources

• ATM Grupa, production credits and premiere: https://atmgrupa.pl/dla-mediow/uroczysta-premiera-filmu-jak-zyc-zeby-nie-zwariowac-za-nami-film-juz-w-kinach/
• Monolith Films, official synopsis and principal cast: https://www.monolith.pl/aktualnosci/stracila-prace-i-meza-a-komornik-chce-jej-mieszkania-anka-ma-dosc-finalny-zwiastun-i-plakat-jak-zyc-zeby-nie-zwariowac-juz-dostepne
• Cinema City, film running time and release date: https://www.cinema-city.pl/filmy/jak-zyc-zeby-nie-zwariowac/8588o2r
• Crew United, composer and additional crew credits: https://www.crew-united.com/en/Jak-zyc-zeby-nie-zwariowac__354823.html
• How to Live and Not Go Crazy – Jak żyć, żeby nie zwariować: https://polishfilmfestival.com/movie/how-to-live-and-not-go-crazy/