Film 14 YEARS in the making becomes only Polish production to make prestigious Berlinale festival
A new animation entitled “Kill it and leave this town” by Polish director Mariusz Wilczyński will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, which begins on 20 February.
The only Polish film to make it to the prestigious festival, the 1 hour 28 minute production took 14 years to make.
A trailer for the film shows what look like freehand drawings, largely in monochrome, which have been animated to move onscreen.
A trailer for the film (“Zabij to i wyjedź z tego miasta” in Polish) shows what look like freehand drawings, largely in monochrome, which have been animated to move onscreen. This style lends itself well to recollections.
On the website of the Kraków Film Foundation, the film is described as “an autobiographical impression, reminiscence of childhood images, in which the memory of dead parents and the hometown of Łódź comes to life.”
The film is described as “an autobiographical impression, reminiscence of childhood images, in which the memory of dead parents and the hometown of Łódź comes to life.”
The film, which is in Polish with English subtitles, will feature the voices of well-known Polish actors including Krystyna Janda and Daniel Olbrychski.
It also includes the voice of film director Andrzej Wajda, who passed away in 2016; Wilczyński managed to record it before his death.
The music was composed by Wilczyński’s friend, Polish composer, guitar player and vocalist Tadeusz Nalepa, who died in 2007.
Born in Łódź in 1960, Wilczyński graduated from the city’s Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied painting and woodcut. Later, in the 1990s, he became interested in film animation.
He taught himself, starting with short animations for television. While working at Polish television TVP, he created around 200 “Księgoklipy” (literally book-clips), his term for book reviews combining animation and performance, in 1995-1999.
The 1 hour 28 minute film took director Mariusz Wilczyński 14 years to make.
From there, he went on to create music videos.
Since then, his unique style has gained a following in Poland and beyond. Retrospectives of his films have been held at MoMa in New York and at the National Museum in Warsaw, among other places.
The film, which is in Polish with English subtitles, will feature the voices of well-known Polish actors including the grand dame of theatre Krystyna Janda.
The film will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on 22 February, where it will be shown as part of the Encounters competition, which aims to support new voices in cinema, while giving more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms.
It will compete against 14 other films from around the world, from India to Argentina.
