dir. Marek Piestrak | Poland | 1982 | 98’ | + lecture before the screening

What connects Silesian Hollywood and an American visionary of contemporary horror cinema? The story of an insurgent haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. Produced by the Silesia Film Studio, this gothic horror film is not only one of the most iconic productions of Polish cinema, but also an important cinematic inspiration for Eggers, whom he mentions alongside Lokis, the early films of Andrzej Żuławski, and the works of Murnau, Lang and Bergman.

ROBERT EGGERS. RETRO[per]SPECTIVE

An American visionary of stylish horror, unapologetically paying homage to European cinema classics. An aesthete enamored with the past, unafraid to balance on the edge of cinematic exaggeration and good taste. Yet he never loses his form or creative discipline; with an extraordinary sense of image and sound, he builds the atmosphere of his cinematic stories.

He explores the boundaries of madness and loneliness. He searches for lost connections with nature in their most primitive manifestations. He looks into the eyes of hares and seagulls, follows a black goat deep into a dark forest. He turns people into wild dogs, drowns healthy senses in the raging waves of the ocean.

Spinning ghoulish fairy tales and evoking myths, he tells stories that are thoroughly contemporary: family dramas set indoors, Shakespearean tragedies, parables about initiation and growing up. His cinematic dreams awaken fears of what is hidden within us. He mixes good with evil. He digs up blood-soaked earth and brings to the surface what we would like to cover up, bury, and forget. He searches for truth in the past and universal meaning in history. Light blinds him, but he finds solace in darkness.

***

The set of Robert Eggers' first three feature films will be complemented by a special screening of “Wilczyca” (“The She-Wolf”), a Polish horror film that connects the American director with... Upper Silesia.