Post-Production - POLISH - Biography, Drama - 90 minutes
The protagonist of AFTERIMAGES is the painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, an artist who did not give in to social realism. The consequences of his artistic choices were tragic. This is a film about how a charismatic, defiant man was squashed by a socialist state.
Year of production : 2016 Director(s) : Andrzej WAJDA Writer(s) : Andrzej MULARCZYK Cast : Boguslaw LINDA, Zofia WICHLACZ, Bronislawa ZAMACHOWSKA, Krzysztof PIECZYNSKI Producer(s) : Michal KWIECINSKI (Akson Studio)
AFTERIMAGES tells the story of Strzemiński's last years. The film is set in Lodz, between 1945 and 1952, during the Stalinist period. Strzemiński is a painter and a professor at the National School of Fine Arts in Lodz. A great artist and the creator of the theory of Unism, Strzemiński was appreciated and admired in Poland and abroad before the war. Although his students still treat him like a master, the “messiah of modern painting”, his coworkers, the university authorities and the Ministry of Culture have a very different opinion about him.Unlike loyal Party members and artists working under the doctrines of social realism and fulfilling “party tasks”, Strzemiński does not compromise his art. He refuses to allow politics into his work and follows his own artistic path, which does not comply with official Party regulations: “the correct track in art is to describe the history of the nation's efforts under Party leadership, as well as the essence of socialist social and civilisational transformations”. Because of his attitude, Strzemiński is persecuted and finally expelled from the university and removed from the Association of Polish Artists and Designers. The communist authorities want to destroy him and are persistent about it.Strzemiński is impoverished. His illness progresses, leaving him weaker and weaker. His friends turn away from him, but his students still admire him. They continue to visit their professor despite the consequences they face for staying in touch with him. They pen down his “Theory of Vision” and listen carefully to his critique of their own work.Strzemiński is truly poverty-stricken. After fainting in the street, he is put in hospital due to extreme malnutrition. Thanks to the help from his few friends, he is employed as a city decorator. Ironically, his job involves painting propaganda signs. Although he has only one leg and one arm, he is made to decorate dummies in shop windows. Passersby laugh and mock the humiliated artist. Nika – Strzemiński's daughter with sculptor Katarzyna Kobro – is also an important character in the film. She does not live with her father. During her mother's illness and after her death Nika lives in a childrens' home. This subplot will allow us to tell the story of Strzemiński's complicated family life. Strzemiński dies in December 1952.
Country(ies) : POLAND
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