It Looks Pretty from a Distance
Z daleka widok jest piekny
From the very start, it is evident that the authors of It Looks Pretty from a Distance, both feature-film debutants, have a huge background in the visual arts. Wilhelm Sasnal, known for his precise yet abstract paintings, and Anka Sasnal, his wife and collaborator, instantly catch us with the traps their protagonists set in the woods. What’s inside the filmmakers’ traps? Pure images, ideally paced and contemplative, that provide the real tension and suspense. No dialogue needed, not even a plot.
The story focuses on a small, incestuous Polish community during an exhaustingly hot summer. Everyone is either about to explode or come to a complete halt. Hidden aggression, hatred, discrimination, as well as fears, longings and emotional crises are constantly about to break through the surface.
Using a minimalistic, almost austere style, the Sasnals create an absolutely physical, not to say physiological, portrait of a micro society that turns into a viscious swamp, unresistingly absorbing any kind of violence. An example of purely contemporary cinema, at once tangible and elusive.
Film details
- Countries of production
- Poland, USA
- Year
- 2011
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 77"
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
You may also like this
-
In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire
A poetic title, almost a film description, that demands some close reading. Just like the film, which – as a visual poem – doesn’t imme
-
De jueves a domingo
Scenes from a marriage, viewed from the back seat of the spacious Mazda 929 that a Chilean family uses to go on holiday for a couple of days. Sensi
-
Neighbouring Sounds
Meandering past the residents of a wealthy street in Recife, where private security guards ply their trade, this self-assured debut portrays the tw