A film by Kamil Polak - Polnisches Institut Berlin

The lost town of Świteź PRESSBOOKLET
Piotr Dumała about THE LOST TOWN OF ŚWITEŹ
„If Mickiewicz lived today, he could be a film maker. The way he describes reality and consequences
of different events is very much fit for a film. (…) [Watching ŚWITEŹ] at the very beginning, I am
impressed with the carriage. I can see trees as if they were in a stereoscopic camera. It is a bit like
a childlike joy at seeing something impossible, that all of a sudden someone is sailing in the air,
levitating. This is like watching something through telescopic glasses for the first time, and we can
experience such a WOW effect; something incredible has happened. And this moment when the
carriage is speeding, the camera suddenly stops and we can see that these trees move against each
other, but they do not cease to be flat, yet it is not just a common cut-out, and this is when you feel
delighted. (…) These waves are wet, but they are not just water. They are also a mass of indefinite
matter that performs a kind of a dance around the cathedral before it is ravaged. We do not even
actually see the moment of the ravage itself. It is because it is not about this. It is more of a change
from a realistic and film vision to a kind of an ornamental abstraction that transforms in front of our
eyes and is beautiful in itself.”
„It is a new statement in animation that has something from 2D, 3D, painting, computer film, but
actually none of these can I discern in this film separately. Just like Kamil told me that for him this film
is an experience that the character undergoes, that is purifying, and it would be ideal for him if the
spectator could experience the same, that this film is just a kind of immersion into something that
leaves us changed as we go out.”
Piotr Dumała is a Polish film director and animator.
The fragments are taken from a statement for a documentary about the making of THE LOST TOWN
OF ŚWITEŹ.
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