Totart

Filled with dynamically edited archival footage and personal recollections, Totart is, in the strict sense, a documentary. Nonetheless, it feels more like a detective story. The missing person in this case is Zbigniew Sajnóg, the ideologue of the eponymous group, which, in the 1980s, shook the crumbling foundations of communism. The detective is the director. The witnesses include Totart’s remaining founding fathers, such as Tymon Tymański and Paweł “Konjo” Konnak. Before finding out whether Sajnóg is still alive or not, audiences learn about his complicated twists of fate, including his dealings with an infamous sect called Niebo (Heaven), and are infected by the phenomenon of Totart itself. Bartosz Paduch’s film is both a synthesis and an attempt at an evaluation. Audiences are introduced to the subversive creativity of the members of Totart, which, at times, appeared in the form of anarchistic pranks and, at other times, as thoroughly anti-system actions. The director manages to capture the transformation not only of the group’s artists but also of the country in which they were creating their art. In doing so, Totart fills a gap in the cinematic treatment of the transformation process.