Ryszard Sulewski

Ironic impression on the value of Polish money. The leitmotif was a animated image of working miners from an old 500-zloty banknote. . .

A top view of the A seats. We can hear the murmur of delegates gathering in the room. There are more and more people. The words of the speech are barely audible, but one may presume that an important member of the party talks to the working people. The delegates, wearing the same suits, smile approvingly. The camera moves to the B seats. The delegates sitting there grid their teeth, pout and frown. They comment on the speech quietly, they hide their anger. A look at the A seats, the delegates sitting there are really pleased with the speech. An animated story by Miroslaw Kijowicz, a director, scriptwriter of animated films, set designer and educator. An ordinary man was usually the protagonist of Kijowicz's philosophical short films. The situations presented in the films were rather general, they were supposed to provide food for thought. "A-B" obviously refers to the growing political crisis of the second half of the 1970s and Orwellian doublethink.

A stylish Louis XIV chair leaves the interior of the house and exposes itself to the forces of nature. It falls prey to a chainsaw that turns everything into a mass of identical, practical objects.

An apocalyptic vision of a forest fire

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, which I shall upload shortly), W trawie is a fantastical exploration of the world beneath our feet.

During the day, we could see traces of passersby and the couple of protagonists on the white and soft snow. They go to a dinner party. The evening will end tragically, but the next day begins with the milkman's footsteps, as usual.

Different shades of responsibility. A mother drowns her blind unhappy child. She wants to spare him the burden of being a cripple. She is absolved by a priest, but the police are waiting for her in front of the church.

A somewhat ironic depiction of life in a small Polish town at the beginning of the 1970s. The local brass band plays in the streets. Girls stroll, younger boys play soccer. Someone is looking at someone with interest, someone is courting someone, someone is parting ways. A poet associated with a local art group writes poems about everyday life.

It is one of the most stirring animated films in the history of animation. In a simple, but powerful way Czekala presents a horror that happened in concentration camps – prisoners’ dread, humiliation and lost humanity. The everyday roll-call ends tragically because of prisoners’ “insubordination” in this black and white film. The Roll-Call crossed borders of what can be presented or not in animation. It is sometimes interpreted as a response to the trend of allegorical and philosophical films that dominated in Polish animation in 1960s.

It is a philosophical parable about a man at the crossroads. He divides himself in two, as he cannot decide on the one way only. Each half follows its own path. When they meet again, they do not fit each other any longer. The journey changed them irreversibly.