Lullaby with Tears

A film from the "Impressions" series, created using classical animation techniques, executed with painting on celluloid. The viewer's guide through selected paintings by Marc Chagall is the figure of the Jew – the Eternal Wanderer, a symbol of the artist's feelings and experiences. Through the composition of selected paintings or their fragments, the film evokes the artist's life experiences and his self-definition of the world. The nostalgic atmosphere of longing for his native Vitebsk, the realities of his stay in Paris, his return to Russia, and the experiences of the revolution, "inscribed" in the poetics of Chagall's paintings, create a unique atmosphere within the film narrative, created by the artist's imagination.

Lutek works at Skibka's bakery. One day, Skibka sees Lutek giving Emilka, a homeless girl, a roll. Enraged, he throws Lutek onto the street. Emilka and Lutek meet Mr. Franciszek, a Warsaw cab driver. Mr. Franciszek tells the children about a lake in the basement of the castle on Ordynacka Street, where the Golden Duck floats. He gives anyone who sees her there at midnight a bag of gold ducats. Lutek decides to go to the castle...

A film miniature set to classical music. The film's visuals fit the initially mysterious mood of the musical piece, only to gradually evoke increasing emotion until the final climax, which releases the previously accumulated emotions in the long sustain of the last note. The backdrop for this poetic story is the landscape of Warsaw's Old Town, captured in the time and space of Chopin's era, into which personified music enters – the girl from an old portrait "awakened to life." The touch of her hand brings to life the people and objects from the old engravings, only for the brief moment the music continues.