Film Archive

To Kill a Beaver

Official Selection - Competition 2012 / Zabić bobra / Poland 2012

Eryk, a man in his forties, arrives at an abandoned farm where he confronts old memories, starts up an unexpected relationship, and makes ready for an unexplained bout of revenge. The new picture from Jan Jakub Kolski, the master of Polish magical realism, offers a dramatic tale that ponders just how civilized humans really are.

Synopsis

Protagonist Eryk is a character akin to Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood) and StB agent Antonín (Walking Too Fast). He is an obstinate man with obvious internal demons, a fact which provokes apprehension in those around him and an impression of inspiring indomitability. Yet despite his desire to be alone, a woman intrudes upon the quiet of his unspecified plans. His benumbed feelings, which the director illustrates through a world full of minor mysteries, typify Eryk just as precisely as his fit body and sharp vision. Eryk’s behavior and even his relationship resist rational perception, allowing the film to touch on fundamental questions of human existence, its instinctiveness, as well as how it is marked by specific experiences. These the director reveals gradually, offering multiple ways of perceiving them. Manic memories lead to manic actions, but they remain veiled in an aura of mystery concerning both their nature and moral justifiability.

About the film

99 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director Jan Jakub Kolski / Screenplay Jan Jakub Kolski / Dir. of Photography Michał Pakulski / Music Dariusz Górniok / Editor Piotr Kolski / Producer Wiesław Łysakowski / Production Tramway Film Studio / Cast Eryk Lubos, Agnieszka Pawełkiewicz, Mariusz Bonaszewski / Contact Tramway Film Studio
www: www.zabicbobra.pl

About the director

Jan Jakub Kolski (b. 1956, Wrocław) has long been one of Poland’s most intriguing directors. Although he graduated in camera, he writes the scripts for his movies and has also made a name for himself as a prose writer. His films have been shown at festivals in Cannes (Funeral for a Potato / Pogrzeb kartofla, 1990), Tokyo (The Commander’s Sword / Szabla od komendanta, 1995), and Venice in 2003, where he competed with Pornography (Pornografia). Karlovy Vary audiences know Far from the Window (Daleko od okna) and History of Cinema in Popielawy (Historia kina w Popielawach, 1998), both of which competed for the East of the West section prize. Kolski often takes inspiration from the region of his childhood, embellishing it with a dreamlike quality where his ambiguous protagonists play out their roles.