One of the boldest projects in the history of Polish animation Kill It and Leave This City, made for 14 years, will open the 20th New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław.
The full-length production of the outstanding author of artistic animation, Mariusz Wilczyński, was one of the most interesting titles presented at the last Berlinale and was awarded at the prestigious animation festival in Annecy. The tender, hypnotizing work of Wilczyński impresses with a gallery of characters who speak in the film with the voices of, among others: Irena Kwiatkowska, Andrzej Wajda, Marek Kondrat, Barbara Krafftówna, Daniel Olbrychski, Tomasz Stańko, Krystyna Janda and Anna Dymna. The director’s special interlocutor is his friend Tadeusz Nalepa, whose works and words give the rhythm of the stream of memories and the direction of the story.
This year the organizers of New Horizons want to devote a special place in the program for Polish productions. Kill It and Leave This City is the first of many titles to be seen at this year’s festival.
Wilczyński’s film is a dialogue with ghosts filled with tenderness, blues in honor of friendship, a painstaking resurrection of people, places, dialogues, neon lights, sounds, and even wisps of cigarette smoke. Autobiographical, evoking the atmosphere of communist childhood and adolescence in post-transformation Poland, taking on colors; Kill It and Leave This City combines poetry with raw realism, living with the dead, nostalgia with accepting loss. Wilczyński’s animation is a moving farewell to his parents’ generation marked by the war, but also a reminder that the conversation with those who shaped us is endless.
Mariusz Wilczyński works with paintings and performance to create original live animated films. He was hailed by The New York Times as one of the most important contemporary masters in this field. He is the only Polish author of artistic animation who had an overview of his work at the famous Museum of Modern Art in New York and the first Pole whose animations were presented at The National Gallery in London. Joshua Siegel – film curator at The Museum of Modern Art – stated that Wilczyński is one of the “most outstanding contemporary animators in the world.” The director was also the hero of the retrospective at the 12th New Horizons International Film Festival.
This year we invite you to the joint editions of the New Horizons International Film Festival, and the American Film Festival from November 5-15th, more details about the festivals to be announced.