director Magdalena Piekorz
screenplay (based on his own short story ‘Dung’) Wojciech Kuczok
director of photography Marcin Koszałka
music Adrian Konarski
with Michał Żebrowski, Jan Frycz, Agnieszka Grochowska, Wacław Adamczyk (child)
awards (selection) Eagle, Polish Film Award for Best Actor (Jan Frycz), 2005
Silver Knight, International Film Festival in Chelyabins, 2005
Grand Prix, Golden Lions for Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Costume (Dorota Roqueplo) and Best Sound (Michał Żarnecki), Award of the Association of Foreign Organizers of Polish Film Festivals and Golden Claque for the film with the longest applause at the 29th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, 2004
Main Prize, ‘Jańcio Wodnik’, Journalists Award, award for Michał Żebrowski for actor, award for music and the organizer’s award for Wacław Adamczyk at the National Film Art Festival ‘Provincionality’ in Września, 2005
Warsaw Marmaid (Syrenka Warszawska), Film Critics Club SDP Award, 2004
Golden Film (Złota Taśma) award of the Writers Association SFP, 2005
Golden Duck (Złota kaczka) ‘Film’ magazine Readers Award for Best Polish Film (2004) and for Michał Żebrowski, 2005
WOJCIECH KUCZOK, EXCERPTS FROM A DIARY OF DESPAIRS [WYIMKI Z DZIENNIKA ZWĄTPIEŃ], ‘KINO’, 2004, NO. 10
My thoughts focus on Wojciech as an adult. He must bear this name because it’s a film about a man afflicted by his Father, whom he also finds in himself, and he is fated as a Father (…). Refusing to enter into a dialogue with the Other (and in each of them a bit of God is deposited), refusing to believe in love, he doesn’t believe in God, either (…). He talks to people through the bolted door. He must open it (…) now, at once. For he is in a bad way…
MANANA CHYB, DETOXIFICATION [DETOKSYFIKACJA], ‘KINO’, 2004, NO. 10
Magdalena Piekorz’s film, based on a script by Kuczok, is a drama of ‘the poisoned soul’. We must be grateful to the director that there is no trace of any odd solutions in it, no temptation to esthetise evil, or use symbols indiscriminately. Piekorz knows what she is talking about and what language she applies (…). We watch terror (of a father over his son), ritualised between the kitchen and TV set, inscribed in the timetable of household duties, equipped with a set of habitual gestures and words.
history periods
