Published: Sep 11, 2008


Warm, beautiful and filled with tenderness



There are two kinds of magic in this quiet Polish film. One causes that things we dream of do happen. The other is the way in which the director Andrzej Jakimowski magically succeeds in making such a wonderful movie of something which might seem mere trifles and meaningless stuff.

The director takes us to a Polish small town in the summer, introducing a couple of persons and telling his story in a way which seemingly is as aimless as a lazy summer day. The two characters at the centre of the action are a young boy Stefek (Damian Ul) and his grownup sister Elka (Ewelina Walendziak).

There is a warm and loving bonding between the siblings, unaffected even by a significant dissimilarity in age. Stefek wanders around the town, repeatedly visiting the train station and putting his tin soldiers along the railroad tracks. He has never met his father, who left his family for another woman before Stefek's birth.

However, the boy is dreaming of finding his father. He spots a man at the station, who he considers to be the beginning of his quest. His hunt for his would-be father leads us on through the story like a red thread - the story being told very episodically, through which, at regular intervals, Stefek's sister's relationship and her own hunt for something better than the job of a waitress that she does show. The film contains much warmth and quite a lot of subdued humor, which nonetheless does not veil the fact that Stefek is just a lonely boy, tormented by his longing for his father.

When not everything is going as he intended, he defies fate in his own way, checking if he can get what he wants. Tricks is a rare well-made film, exquisitely photographed, with all its major parts played perfectly. A really warming and charming continuation of the summer for those who need no action to truly experience the cinema. JAN H. LANDRO

online version:
http://www.bt.no/bergenpuls/film/article628300.ece