Feature film directed by Łukasz Barczyk, 2003. When the film protagonist Adrian Snaut leaves the house on the lake, nothing there will ever be the same again. And Adrian, too, will be in love with a different woman than the one he was in love with when he first arrived...
A lakeside house inhabited by a family with three daughters. Adrian Snaut, fiancé to one of the daughters, Wanda, arrives with the intention of asking for her hand in marriage. Wanda's mother, knowledgeable of her potential son-in-law's past (Snaut has just lost his job, in addition to which he is a divorcée, has descended into clinical depression and is addicted to psychotropic drugs), is wary of her daughter's future. She asks Adrian to stay on for a few days so that she can get to know him better. Snaut decides to accept this challenge in spite of Wanda's opposition. He meets each of the other inhabitants of the house in turn: Wanda's younger sister Marta with her husband Tadeusz, and her eldest sister Basia, a single mother raising a daughter. Basia is heavily ill and, owing to past disappointments, hostile towards men. She has yet to tell anyone who the father of her child is. Snaut quickly senses that a strange tension exists between the inhabitants of the house. He attempts, through painfully frank discussions, to alleviate this loaded atmosphere, but ends up destroying the existing, seemingly stable family situation.
When Adrian Snaut leaves the home on the lake, nothing there will ever be the same again. And Adrian, too, will be in love with a different woman than the one he was in love with when he first arrived.
"In 'Transformations' Barczyk (...) is hypnotized by the frail foundations upon which we build our interpersonal existence. 'I love you,' says a man to a woman, and it is evident that he knows what he is saying. 'I want you,' he says to another and his certainty is even more convincing. Is he crazy or a liar? No, he is an ordinary man like us, who is convinced of something every day, though in fact he knows nothing." (Mateusz Werner, "Film" monthly)
"Snaut's boldness in the film has something in common with the boldness of the director himself, who initially draws us into a dark, fatalistic, 'Scandinavian' family drama, and in the third act abandons his tragic tone along with the entire toxic family. Simultaneously, he provides viewers with a lesson on how to escape suffering." (Tadeusz Sobolewski, "Gazeta Wyborcza" daily)
- Przemiany / Transformations, Polska 2003. Written and directed by Łukasz Barczyk. Director of photography: Karina Kleszczewska. Production design: Magdalena Maciejewska. Music by: Ryszard Tymon Tymański, Piotr Pawlak. Editing: Bogusława Furga. Executive producer: The Chimney Pot. Featuring: Maja Ostaszewska (Marta Mycinska), Jacek Poniedziałek (Adrian Snaut, Wanda's Fiancé), Katarzyna Herman (Wanda, Marta's Sister), Aleksandra Konieczna (Basia Ostrowska, Marta's Sister), Maria (Majka) Maj (Mother of all three sisters), Wojciech Kalarus (Tadeusz Myciński, Marta's husband), Magdalena Krawczyk (Alicja, Basia's Daughter). Production: The Chimney Pot, Syrena Entertainment Group, Studio Filmowe "Tor". Color, time: 77 min.
Awards:
- 2003, Festival of Polish Feature Films, Gdynia - Award of the Chairman of Polish State Television
- 2003, International Film Festival, Turin - Special Jury Prize, FIPRESCI Award and Cinemavenire Award for "a rigorous and fundamentally sound narration, outstanding direction of actors and for portraying the breaking shell of a family, which beyond a tenuous balance hides pathologies and unresolved traumas"