The Sundial

Andrzej Kondratiuk is rather an outsider in the Polish film business. He makes his films entirely on his own and is a celebrated cult film-maker in his own country. In 1996 Rotterdam screened his films The Four Seasons (1984) and Spinning Wheel of Time (1995), a refined story about love and the passing of time, full of poetry and sarcastic humour. The Sundial is the third part of this trilogy entitled ‘Family Cinema’. Kondratiuk’s return to the same place and the same characters offers him an opportunity to reflect, to get a better view of his own life. So The Sundial is characterised by a fairly revealing self-irony and is the funniest film in the trilogy.The rather eccentric Kondratiuk forms a special kind of triangle with his wife/actress and as third part the camera. The camera is their mirror, evokes memories of youth, allows man and woman to declare their love. The three of them keep making the same film, time and again, verging on the stubborn. It is the film of their lives… the Sundial.