Parasite
The makers of It Looks Pretty from a Distance (Z daleka widok jest piękny) continue to explore the dark recesses of Polish reality. Set in an oppressive, industrial landscape, Parasite (Huba) is somewhat reminiscent of Antonioni’s Red Desert. Anna and Wilhelm Sasnal show a world they are very familiar with. The pictures are from Mościce, a district of Tarnów, where, several years ago, Wilhelm also recorded fragments of his film The Fallout (Opad). Parasite, shown at this year’s Berlinale, presents local nitrogen plants as factories full of human robots. The protagonists – an old man, a woman, and a child – function in the shadow of an industrial behemoth, and their lives are limited to a series of empty rituals. The minimalistic form used by the Sasnals fully captures the monotony of the existence shown on screen. The radical Parasite finally breaks through the fear that has prevented a large number of Polish filmmakers from coming to terms with the costs of the political transformation.
Piotr Czerkawski
Anna Sasnal
Born in 1973, Anna Sasnal is an editor, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Together with her husband, Wilhelm, she has made both feature and documentary films. The 2011 film It Looks Pretty from a Distance qualified for the main competition at the festival in Rotterdam, and received the Wrocław Film Prize in the New Polish Films section at the New Horizons International Film Festival. She served as the inspiration for several paintings by Wilhelm, including Untitled – Kacper and Anka (Bez tytułu – Kacper i Anka).
Filmography
2010 Opad (co-dir.)
2011 Z daleka widok jest piękny / It Looks Pretty from a Distance (co-dir.)
2013 Aleksander (doc.)
2013 Huba / Parasite (co-dir.)
Wilhelm Sasnal
Born in 1972, Wilhelm Sasnal is a world-renowned painter and experimental filmmaker. He is one of the co-founders of the Krakow Ładnie (Pretty) collective. He has sometimes been considered one of the voices of the 1970s generation and his work often deals with the impact of the political transformation on society. He has exhibited his work on numerous occasions, including in New York and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2006, he occupied the top position on a list of the 100 most important young artists in the world of contemporary art, as voted upon in the pages of the magazine Flash Art.
Selected filmography
2001 Samochody i ludzie (short)
2010 Opad (co-dir.)
2011 Z daleka widok jest piękny / It Looks Pretty from a Distance (co-dir.)
2013 Aleksander (doc.)
2013 Huba / Parasite (co-dir.)