9 and 16 Aug at 11:15 pm
Summerhall (venue 26) / 1 Summerhall (EH9 1PL)
Tickets: £3/£2
Box office: 0845 874 3001
Duration: 1 hours 30 minutes
Age restrictions: 18+
Late night animation screenings which embrace the surreal and unexpected feature work by some of Poland’s most acclaimed filmmakers
A still from Labyrint
Labyrinth (Labirynt)
Jan Lenica, 1961, 14 min
Born out of a maze of cut-up animation, Labyrinth tells the story of Icarus’myth, in an unsettling atmosphere inherent to many of Franz Kafka's works. Jan Lenica creates a surrealist world inhabited by strange, hybrid creatures, both fascinating and dangerous, imaginable only in a dream. A vividly depicted totalitarian reality, the mythical hero is destroyed by a bird-like creature. Labyrinth is one of Lenica's most famous works, exemplifying the reflective philiosophies of mainstream 1960's Polish animations.
A still from Wszystko jest liczbą, courtesy of Filmoteka Narodowa
Everything is a Number (Wszystko Jest Liczba)
Stefan Schabanbeck, 1966, 7 min
A story about a man's protest against the domination of numbers. The fight is deemed to be a failure. Finally, the hero gives up and transforms himself to number one - forever destined to be first in line.
A still from Zupa, courtesy of Filmoteka Narodowa
Soup (Zupa)
Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1974, 8 min
It seems that paranoia is one of the main features of a totalitarian state; let us hope that it is also a sign of its imminent fall… Censored by Polish authorities, Soup (Zupa) appears to be a surreal piece with no overt political criticisms of any sort.
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Unfortunately (Niestety)
Mariusz Wilczynski, 2004, 13 min
An animated film about a pair of elderly angels. They are happy, charitable, and agreeable. One night, they both dream the same dream about being young again. Their parallel visions depict identical stories about their long, layering, weaving lives together. Dreams of unexpected accounts tap into the dark corners of their subconscious, leading the couple to confusion and stupor when the sun rises and they wake up... Tomasz Stanko's evocative music score concludes this dreamy story.
A still from Klatki
Cages (Klatki)
Mirosław Kijowicz, 1966, 7 min
In his animation works, Miroslaw Kijowicz continually returns to the subject of personal conflict within a totalitarian system. Clear references to Nazi concentration camps speak through the schematic, black and white pictures, dominated by vertical bars disguised as prison camp stripes. The images are accompanied by illustrative music from Krzysztof Komeda. Kijowicz portrays a very complicated situation that develops between a prisoner and his guard, who presumably has absolute power over him. This power, however, is the illusion of a higher truth. The truth of those trapped within cages.
A still from Bankiet
Banquet (Bankiet)
Zofia Oraczewska, 1976, 8 min
Guests arrive at the banquet, where they dine at tables laden with food, encountering a gruesome surprise. Banquet is a satire on the society of consumers.
A still from Czarny Kapturek, courtesy of Filmoteka Narodowa
Little Black Riding Hood (Czarny Kapturek)
Piotr Dumala, 1983, 5 min
The Little Black Riding Hood visits her grandmother, with a basket in tow. During on her journey, she gathers flowers in a forest clearing, and she is suddenly captured. Meanwhile, the dangerous wolf awaits her nearby… The film is created in the unique technique of painting and draping images on glass plates.
A still from Ichtys
Ichthis (Ichthys)
Marek Skrobecki, 2005, 15 min
Ichthis is an unconventional, metaphysical parable of the persistence of expectations, hope, and fulfillment. The protagonist is a man in his prime. He arrives at a whose interior is filled with a somewhat sacred atmosphere. He is the only customer of the restaurant, and a cherub-like waitor greets him at the door. The waitor takes his order and leaves. The customer waits, and as time passes, he appears to grow old. When the waiter finally returns with the meal, seemingly untouched by time, he finds his client who, presumably, is dead...