Tourists

Here is a dollar, and we are filming! Thus begins a journey into the world of resorts, optional excursions, and the rituals of mass tourism-an all-inclusive package that explores the world of the ambitions and fantasies of Poland's middle class. The documentary by Marta Wójtowicz-Wcisło (who once worked as a tour guide) and Mateusz Romaszkan is a self-portrait, a collective selfie. Using only amateur recordings, the filmmakers put them together to create a fascinating journey that, although covering different continents, follows a well-marked path staked out by the tourism industry. Hurrying to take in each successive point on the itinerary, we lose out on the chance to enjoy them; laboriously created facades of exoticism separate us from reality-just like the windows of hotel rooms, buses, and planes. The views passing by outside are captured by camera lenses but do not fit together into any sort of coherent picture: this world of recordings remains incomprehensible, strange, foreign. Both "tourists" and "natives" play their designated roles, repeating over and over again, Smile! Which only intensifies the sadness of the tropics.