Franz Kafka 1992
A fantasy biography of Franz Kafka, bringing to life the writer's diaries and photographs.
A fantasy biography of Franz Kafka, bringing to life the writer's diaries and photographs.
Displaced by the Second World War, a troop of Polish soldiers form an inseparable bond through an orphaned bear they name Wojtek.
A man seated next to the body of his young wife thinks about their brief life together. Suicide has been the only escape for her... Dumala's technique creates a dark, claustrophobic atmosphere, entirely suitable for Dostoyevski's novel "A Gentle Spirit" on which it is based.
From cowboys to cannons, diving to racing, perhaps nothing can stop this stuntman
Polish animated short film that uses unconventional film techniques such as cut-out, drawing, filming miscible fluids and scratched images. Also uses non-camera technique such as drawing directly on film. The film is a humorous lecture on the internal structure of a dachshund. Parodying popular lectures at the same time, it contains a message about the superiority of the products of living organisms' techniques and calls for respect for the environment.
Kajetan, a dog and famous detective, and his assistant, Cat Makawity, try to solve the mystery of the director's disappearance and the problems of other creatures from the neighbourhood. Only the Secret of Marabou’s Code can stop Chameleon, a dangerous criminal.
A self-consciously Kafkaesque tale of a winged lonely man literally devoured by totalitarian rule.
A penal gymnastics session is underway during a roll call in a concentration camp. A brutal voice shouts furious commands: "nieder - auf!" (down – up!). One of the prisoners will not obey the commands, another one will almost survive
An allegory of the hopeless relationship between a prisoner and his jailer, representing the dependence of mankind upon authoritarianism.
Ijon Tichy arrives on a new planet in a single-person spacecraft. His habits and fantasies are with him. The aliens recreate the sex bomb from the poster that could be found in the cabin of his spacecraft. Then, they present him a live dummy. A male-female evening in space with some pre-war music hits becomes possible.
Kalina links traditional animation with a re-projection. To the rhythm of the popular folk song Ukochany kraj, umiłowany kraj (Beloved country, dear country) he creates an anti-ballade about the farmer’s hard life and difficult work. Monotonous and mechanical activities degrade a man.
Two shades of paint are pitted against each other in a bullfight that spills self-reflexively from the page into the animator’s studio
Ironic impression on the value of Polish money. The leitmotif was a animated image of working miners from an old 500-zloty banknote. . .
Enacting the story of a hunt with wild but precise gestures, the Polish animator Witold Giersz’s The Horse (award-winning at the Krakow Film Festival for “its exceptionally interesting animation technique”) explodes with color and brings to life the physical strokes of paint of which it is made. The film never lets you forget that what you’re seeing is simply paint being rearranged into recognizable shapes, yet the pumping musical score and expressiveness of its titular character provide a simultaneous emotional experience. The abstract backgrounds render the narrative world beautiful and strange yet entirely comprehensible, as the film depicts an epic chase from humanity’s past.
In the modern village of the future, everything is mechanized, but the dreams of the village musician remain the same. He wants to become an artist. Thanks to the fact that an Art Nouveau goddess gave him a helping hand, Janko Muzykant saves his life and escapes from the village on a Pegasus.
The second animated work from filmmaker, sculptor and painter Jerzy Kalina. Using multi-plane techniques mixed with paper animation and coloured grains (an element found in his first film, ...i stała się światłość, W trawie is a fantastical exploration of the world beneath our feet.
It is still one of the most popular Polish animated films. Servants prepare the table for a luxurious dinner party in a beautiful palace. Guests are gathering slowly. Suddenly they are surprised by an unexpected change of roles between the eater and the one who is eaten.