We love simple stories, the ones that unfold as a natural course of events, powered by the emotions of the characters and Forgotten Love is right there on the list. At the heart of it, it is the story of the love between a father and a daughter and how its loss and subsequent recovery shapes the journey of the protagonists. The runtime of close to two and a half hours may have you feeling restless, but each minute is important and adds richly to the story. We must also mention how stunning the frames look. If the dominant color theme is to be brown and black, this is how it must be made beautiful. It seems fitting that Forgotten Love and Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar were released on the same day. While the latter is based on a short story by “Roald Dahl” and is narrated like one, the film is based on a novel named “Znacher” which means a quack, written by Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz. We found out about the novel after we had seen the film, but even while watching it, you just know that this has to have been inspired by written work. That is the magic of the film, and here is the summary and ending of Forgotten Love.

Spoiler Alert

How does Rafal Wilczur lose his memory?

It looks like other people’s bad luck makes for the best stories in the world. Rafal Wilczur is a pioneering brain surgeon and is the best in his field. But in the hospital, his colleague, Jerzy Dobraniecki, believes that he is up for the promotion of “Chief Surgeon.” However, when Rafal Wilczur goes out of his way to save the life of a boy who had an accident on the streets, he and the current Chief Surgeon come up with the plan to open a special ward for children in the hospital, for cases like these where people may not always have funds for treatment. Rafal is announced as the Chief Surgeon, but he doesn’t even get time to celebrate before everything goes south.

At home, Rafal’s wife is clearly depressed, and Rafal is unable to do anything for her, despite his best efforts. When he gets home that day, he finds that she has left the house with their daughter, to start a life with Jan, the man she is in love with. When Rafal is trying to look for her, he runs into some goons, and they beat him up. Jerzy comes to the scene as Rafal had called him there before the attack, to help him look for his wife. We suppose it is safe to assume that Jerzy had come with the intention of murder, so that he could get the promotion once Rafal was out of his way. Or it could simply be that he had the rifle for protection, since it wasn’t a good area. Either way, when he sees Rafal injured, Jerzy decides that his work has been done for him. We see that he escapes the place, but we suspect that he perhaps dumped Rafal’s body into the water. Or the goons may have come back and done it. The next day, only Rafal’s coat is found, and it is assumed that he has committed suicide. Jerzy does say that they should investigate more, but it only raises suspicions. Therefore, Jerzy decides to keep quiet about it, and the case of Rafal Wilczur is closed. 

How do Marysia and Rafal meet?

It’s been fifteen years since the accident. Marysia’s mother and stepfather have passed away, and she is working at a bar as a waitress and a singer to make enough to go to college one day. As for Rafal, he has lost his memory and goes by the name of Antoni Kosiba. One day, he runs into Zoska, and while helping her and her companion with a medical issue, which is the one thing that he is able to do due to his instincts, Zoska invites him to work at her mill and stay there. Since Antoni (this is how we will refer to him for the time being) has no other goal in mind, he joins her. It is quite clear that Zoska likes him. Perhaps she liked him as soon as she saw him, but the confused and disoriented Antoni was not prepared for this relationship. They do end up getting closer over time, with some petty jealousies and a better understanding of their own feelings. In the meantime, Antoni continues to help the villagers with his medical instincts (it would be unfair to call it ‘knowledge’ since he doesn’t technically remember anything). But what really gets things going is when Antoni helps Michael, a man who was thought to never walk again after an accident. Antoni performs a surgery on him, and that ends up curing him over time. 

Antoni and Marysia first meet because of Michael. Antoni can sense that she is someone he might have been connected to in the past, though he doesn’t know if he should take that feeling seriously. But what really proves it for him is when he is put in a situation where he has to operate on Marysia. 

Marysia and Count Leszek are in love, much to the Count’s family’s disapproval. After jumping through hoops to prove his love for her, when they finally decide to get married, they get into a terrible accident. While the Count only has a few broken bones, Marysia is more gravely injured. But she is not given any medical attention by the doctors, on the instruction of the Countess. Therefore, with the encouragement of Zoska, Antoni ends up performing the craniotomy and saves Marysia’s life. 

Does Rafal Wilczur Regain His Memory?

As Marysia slowly recovers, she realizes that Antoni Kosiba is no quack but someone with actual medical merit. Meanwhile, Leszek has been sent to Switzerland to recover and is told by his mother that Marysia is dead and he should move on. But Leszek’s father manages to get the truth to him, prompting Leszek to cut all ties with his mother once again and come back to look for Marysia. Knowing that this is what Leszek would do, the Countess approaches Marysia. She gives her an envelope full of money and asks her to distance herself from her son. When Marysia doesn’t agree, she threatens her with harm to Antoni, who has been practicing medicine without an actual license, which could earn him significant jail time. Marysia doesn’t know the truth about Rafal Wilczur, but the bond she shares with him is that of a father and a daughter. To protect him, Marysia leaves the town and decides not to contact Leszek again. When Antoni learns of this, he surrenders himself to the police to get out of the way of Marysia. He is willing to sacrifice himself for her this way because he feels the bond as well, and he knows that while the memory has not yet come to him, she was important in the life he once had.

Meanwhile, Leszek finds Marysia, and this time, he also knows who her biological father is. When the lovers reunite, they must rush back to protect Antoni at all costs. On the way, when Leszek reveals the real identity of Marysia’s father to her, she starts understanding a few things. During the trial, it was quite evident that Antoni may not have a medical license, but he is no quack. However, that is not enough for him to be proven innocent.

During Forgotten Love‘s ending, Marysia arrives at the court just in the nick of time, and she reveals who she is and the fact that Antoni Kosiba is Rafal Wilczur. Stas, the boy whose life Rafal had saved all those years ago, also recognizes the doctor and seconds Marysia. In the very last moments, we see that even Rafal Wilczur remembers who he is and recognizes why he feels that strong bond with Marysia. Honestly, we don’t think that he recollected the entirety of his life before the accident, but we are sure that he recollected enough of his identity, just like he had always remembered his skills. It must have taken that one nudge for his memory to click again. We can guess that, with time, the rest of his life must also have come back to him. At the end of the film, we see a double wedding, with Zoska and Rafal getting married along with Leszek and Marysia. The Countess seems to be attempting a reconciliation of sorts, and maybe that will happen in the future. Overall, everyone is left happy and with the people they are meant to be with.

Final Thoughts

Forgotten Love is a beautiful movie. We wish there had been more time dedicated to Rafal Wilczur actually recovering his memories, but either way, it is not a lie that we were on the edge of our seats in the last fifteen minutes of the film. Most films of the thriller genre don’t make you feel as anxious as this film did at that time. We would definitely recommend this to everyone, and it is one of the must-watch things of this year.