DIRECTOR: DK WELCHMAN, HUGH WELCHMAN
STARRING: ANIMATION
RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 54 MINUTES
Peasant girl Jagna is forced to marry the much older, wealthy farmer Boryna, despite her love for his son Antek. With time, Jagna becomes the object of envy and disdain with the villagers and she must fight to preserve her independence.
STARRING: ANIMATION
RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 54 MINUTES
Peasant girl Jagna is forced to marry the much older, wealthy farmer Boryna, despite her love for his son Antek. With time, Jagna becomes the object of envy and disdain with the villagers and she must fight to preserve her independence.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Your mother wants to sell you.”
The Peasants is the International Feature submission for Poland. At the turn of the twentieth century, the peasants were the largest class in Poland. A peasant is essentially a poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation. The peasants have the right to migrate and are entitled to certain forms of judicial recourse in exchange for specific obligations toward their feudal lords. The wealthiest peasants own most of the land in their villages, and they usually hire paupers to work on their fields in return for a free place to stay.
Set in the rural village of Lipce, at the end of the nineteenth century, the film takes place over a course of a year. The story revolves around Jagna, a beautiful unmarried woman, where in her little Polish village, the town gossip is that she’s a promiscuous girl, mainly due to jealousy over her appearance. Jagna is secretly in love with Antek, a married farmer with two kids, and the son of Boryna, the richest man in town. Boryna’s wife recently passed away and he’s now also in search for a new bride.
Boryna refuses to hand over any part of his substantial landholdings to his three children, leaving them resentful and extremely angry, especially after the death of their mother. And soon after Boryna begins to set his eyes on Jagna as a potential new wife. The most prominent man in Lipce afterall should marry the prettiest girl in town. Boryna begins to buy gifts for her, including an expensive red silk scarf and he even offers to give her six acres of his land in exchange for her to be his newly possession. Despite Jagna and Antek beginning to form their own relationship, Jagna’s mother is thrilled with the arrangement, and agrees with the terms. The intense love triangle, and the town gossip, begins to create havoc in the little village.
Filmed in live action and then painted over with 40,000 oil paintings, The Peasants is an outstanding creation of pure art. Every scene, every frame is a masterful painting and a feast for the eyes. The story itself is about a woman who’s unlucky enough to be so beautiful, in an environment where any form of female power over men is not tolerated. To make it worse, she is ambitious, longing for something more than the peasant’s traditional lot. She doesn’t want to work on the fields. She doesn’t want to get married. She wants to create her own drawings, her own sketches, her own works of art, and in return she becomes the jealousy of every man and woman in her town.
Set against the backdrop of the picturesque Polish countryside, the film immerses us in the world of peasants, with their deep-rooted traditions, folk songs, and dances. It's a place where the passage of time seems to slow down, and life is intricately woven with the rhythms of nature. In the end, love comes and goes but land stays forever.
REVIEW: B+
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Your mother wants to sell you.”
The Peasants is the International Feature submission for Poland. At the turn of the twentieth century, the peasants were the largest class in Poland. A peasant is essentially a poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation. The peasants have the right to migrate and are entitled to certain forms of judicial recourse in exchange for specific obligations toward their feudal lords. The wealthiest peasants own most of the land in their villages, and they usually hire paupers to work on their fields in return for a free place to stay.
Set in the rural village of Lipce, at the end of the nineteenth century, the film takes place over a course of a year. The story revolves around Jagna, a beautiful unmarried woman, where in her little Polish village, the town gossip is that she’s a promiscuous girl, mainly due to jealousy over her appearance. Jagna is secretly in love with Antek, a married farmer with two kids, and the son of Boryna, the richest man in town. Boryna’s wife recently passed away and he’s now also in search for a new bride.
Boryna refuses to hand over any part of his substantial landholdings to his three children, leaving them resentful and extremely angry, especially after the death of their mother. And soon after Boryna begins to set his eyes on Jagna as a potential new wife. The most prominent man in Lipce afterall should marry the prettiest girl in town. Boryna begins to buy gifts for her, including an expensive red silk scarf and he even offers to give her six acres of his land in exchange for her to be his newly possession. Despite Jagna and Antek beginning to form their own relationship, Jagna’s mother is thrilled with the arrangement, and agrees with the terms. The intense love triangle, and the town gossip, begins to create havoc in the little village.
Filmed in live action and then painted over with 40,000 oil paintings, The Peasants is an outstanding creation of pure art. Every scene, every frame is a masterful painting and a feast for the eyes. The story itself is about a woman who’s unlucky enough to be so beautiful, in an environment where any form of female power over men is not tolerated. To make it worse, she is ambitious, longing for something more than the peasant’s traditional lot. She doesn’t want to work on the fields. She doesn’t want to get married. She wants to create her own drawings, her own sketches, her own works of art, and in return she becomes the jealousy of every man and woman in her town.
Set against the backdrop of the picturesque Polish countryside, the film immerses us in the world of peasants, with their deep-rooted traditions, folk songs, and dances. It's a place where the passage of time seems to slow down, and life is intricately woven with the rhythms of nature. In the end, love comes and goes but land stays forever.
REVIEW: B+
