The Queen and the Smokehouse

Director: Iga Lis
Script: Iga Lis
Cinematography: Kacper Gawron
Editing: Jakub Darewski, Kosma Kowalczyk
Music: Bartosz Kruczyński
Producers: Ewa Jastrzębska, Jerzy
Kapuściński, Magdalena Tomanek

Poland 2025
65′

language: polish
subtitles: english

In the very heart of Łeba, surrounded by wind, salt, and the smell of smoke, Miecia has been running a legendary fish smokehouse for four decades. This place is not just a business – it is her element, her calling, and the essence of her everyday life. Thanks to her, the smokehouse has become a local legend, and she herself – a larger-than-life figure. For many residents, she is not only a neighbor or a boss – she is the Queen of Łeba, flesh and blood, with a character as sharp as the smoke from the oven.

But even the strongest must sometimes pause. When her health begins to falter, Miecia is faced with a difficult question: how to find herself beyond the work that has been everything to her for so many years?

The Queen and the Smokehouse is a story about strength, passion, and a delicate moment of suspension – somewhere between what has been and what is yet to come. In the background: the unique seaside folklore and holidays that taste like freshly smoked fish – simple, strong, and true. The whole picture is seasoned with a pinch of Miecia’s sharp, unmistakable sense of humor.

Miecia lives life on the Baltic coast to the fullest, guided by her own philosophy honed over the years – because, as she herself likes to say: I won’t live all my life!

Iga Lis’s daring documentary debut is a bittersweet, warm, and brilliantly witty portrait of a woman who has always lived for others and is now trying to remember who she is for herself.