Thursday 11.September 2008

Enchanting, but not sentimental, poetic, yet not nebulous: a wonderful film about a six-year-old trying to comprehend a little bit absurd world around him.


Film comedy
Poland
Directed by: Andrzej Jakimowski, występujš: Damian Ul, Ewelina Walendziak


Perhaps there is nothing more magical than Polish and Czech films which tell about unusual things, without pompous theories or soap sentimentality, but taking the form of non-dogmatic, unforced, emotional and beautifully composed poetry. They appeal to our poetic abilities and dreams, with the knowing, playful sense of absurdity sparkling somewhere on the edge of visual field.

Tricks (The Magical Summer), too, is far from Western ready-made mass entertainment which gives us a punch on the head with its effects and marketing lures.

Once upon a time in a Polish present-day squalid industrial town there was a father who abandoned his family. His six-year-old son Stefek, played marvelously by the natural born talent Damian Ul, goes through his ordinary life ingeniously, dreaming of his father, future, and points he could grow attached to. He also makes attempts – by performing magic – to organize the bizarre adult world which, in his view, has warped and needs correcting. Jakimowski places himself at a height of a child’s eye view, at the same time still occupying his adult point of view, however without any air of superiority.

The boy’s elder sister cruises around from one job interview to another, simultaneously learning Italian in order to find employment with a Western company. Apart from that she dates her boyfriend. The siblings’ mother goes about her own business.

One day Stefek chances on a man who leaves from the railway station every day. Could it possibly be his father? Will his dream of the father, the figure missing both in the Western and Eastern cultures, come true, with or without magic?

The epithet ‘wonderful’ has already been used once in this review – however, I am eager to use it again. Jakimowski is extraordinarily precise as far as the balanced form is concerned – going easy with it. A warm poetic light is cast on the people and their actions; the director treats his characters warmly and humorously, with his consistent musicality and absolute cinematic pitch. Just like in the other Polish and Czech movies of the last few decades, there is a commentary on the present time, showing through all the combinations of the plot.

One must have a heart of stone to resist being absorbed into this friendly universe, full of questions, created by the artist who sniggers at essential matters a little bit, showing us the pictures of humanity overflowed with affection.

The summertime movie is a magical experience which makes us realize that there will never be all hands shown in human relationships.

online version:
http://oslopuls.aftenposten.no/film/article71343.ece