La Croix 22.10.2008


Andrzej Jakimowski films with poetry the roaming of a child, determined to change the course of destiny.

SZTUCZKI **
by Andrzej Jakimowski
Polish film, 1:32

“I am your mother and your father in one”, says Elka, 17, to her younger brother, 10-year-old Stefek. Their mother brings them up alone and she seems to be submissive after the departure of her husband, “stolen by some other woman”. Elka works at a restaurant and dreams of a job that would let her make use of the taste for Italian. Whenever she has a free moment, she spends it with Jerzy, her boyfriend. Stefek, left on his own, wanders around and makes up an imaginary world, where birds obey his slapping fingers and his tin solders prove as effective and convincing as if they were of flash and bone. Every morning on the platform the boy watches a man in a suit, whom he chooses to be his father.
   Tricks is a gentle and tender chronicle of a summer not like the others.

Little by little, by subtle strokes, everything flows.

Time flows gently and identical images return, allegories of the time when everything can repeat endlessly: Stefek parks himself on a bench at the train station and watches the passengers; he places his tin soldiers on the ties to check, if they can hold upright in spite of the jolts caused by the train; he accompanies Elka to her job interviews and, whatever comes, keeps his fingers crossed to bring her luck; he tries to get in-between his sister and her fiancé and he often succeeds; he opens a cage of carrier pigeons, which are in little hurry to fly away.
    The troubles of the little boy come across to the viewers, in spite of the beautiful light that wraps everything. Little by little, by subtle strokes, everything flows. Stubborn and quiet little boy, Stefek, is convinced that he can act on destiny, wipe off the bad luck that sticks to some and bring the good fortune to those who deserve it. A handful of coins scattered on the rails, snaps of his fingers and tin solders placed well — he tries to create mini-disturbances that can waver an existence and give him back its coherence. The film takes the viewers to a voyage full of grace and poetry.

CORINNE RENOU NATIVEL