It Looks Pretty from a Distance

A film about an ailing old man and a young mother. After retiring from the factory, the man, deprived of his daily routine, loses control over his time. Unable to eat or sleep, he starts drying up. The mother and child are like a single organism. Yet their relationship is, for all its closeness, one of dependence and inequality. The child, whose attachment to life is the strongest, is ravenous and needy; the woman, though enjoying a brief moment of freedom, is doomed to be a victim, while the old man has nothing to keep him going now that he can no longer work at the factory. When the three of them try to have a life together, they are like the Holy Family reversed. Brought together by chance, their lives intertwine in a web of oppression. The film follows their daily existence and slow decline.

Inspired by Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Rafał Mularz, a stranger in his own society, creates a daily routine and a lifestyle that protects him from the outside world. His method seems to work fine until he is confronted with another stranger. A man thrown out by the sea, an immigrant. Rafał has to make a decision: Will he confront this society unfit for strangers and take responsibility for this man? Or will he choose to continue to protect himself?

Ewa works as a translator. She gives private english lessons and lives alone, but has a strong bond with her parents and sister Joanna. One day she got a package from her former boyfriend Eryk who writes her that he’s starting a journey. Reading his notes Ewa starts to think that description of his journey is chronicle of Eric’s sickness and depression and all of his story is fiction.

The ‘koreks’ of the title refers to a film developing tank. The work depicts an undeveloped roll of film, supposedly found years later in a cellar. Sasnal uses this motif as a starting point for a story about memory and family genealogy. The film features the artist’s father and son, whilst his own presence is replaced by images that interact with people and objects. *Koreks* does not reconstruct a single story, but builds tension between what has been preserved and what has been lost or is merely imagined.

Unemployed Joseph Marti is hired as an assistant to Mr. Tobler, an inventor. However, it turns out that the inventions are useless and Marti becomes a Man for everything while he plunges into the everyday routines of Mr. and Mrs. Tobler.

A short film by Wilhelm Sasnal

A short film by Wilhelm Sasnal

A short film by Wilhelm Sasnal

A short film by Wilhelm Sasnal