Grzegorz Królikiewicz

“The Dancing Hawk” refers to the son of a peasant who senses he can climb to the job in troubled times by playing his cards right. His slavery to work match his ambitions, and gradually he reaches the social position he desires. But the costs have included a dehumanized soul and a loss of a moral conscience. People have had to pay for his advancement, including those nearest to him. The downfall is equally painful: either imprisonment or the easy wasy out are offered as the alternatives.Read More »

Nightmarish and claustrophobic film from Grzegorz Królikiewicz, one of the most formally radical and innovative Polish filmmakers, yet also one of the least known. Sadly not included in the Polish boxed set of his work, the film shares a little in common with Trier’s Befrielsesbilleder and Lopushansky’s Letters From A Dead Man, along with Ryszard Czekala’s Czlowiek i chleb. Shot almost entirely in darkness with obfuscated framing, it’s difficult to capture film’s unusual beauty in still images, but the densely oppressive atmosphere is overwhelming.Read More »

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“Through and Through” is a legendary feature focusing on radicalization of cinematic language. The film transgresses traditional methods of narrative construction, which is characteristic of its genre. This non-conentional treatment of the cinematic form places this film somewhere between experimental art and cinema, in a domain that does not properly belong to either field. Krolikiewicz’s radical debut is representative of his parallel pursuits – as a filmmaker as well as film theorist – and employs his crucial theory of “out – of – frame cinematographic space.” The first film in his trilogy (together with Dancing Hawk and Endless Claims), which portray typical Polish anti-heroes imprisoned by reality, “Through and Through” criticizes the nihilism and depravity created by the socio-political system.Read More »