Well, this is a dose of East European weirdness and no mistake!
A fourteen year-old Polish boy is a prodigy, already having several academic degrees to his name. His ambitious, single and at times drunken mother pushes him even harder: she wants him to win a Europe-wide academic competition. But the boy just wants to be a boy, especially when his long-last father reappears on the scene.
So far, so kitchen-sink drama. But then there's the singing doomsday preacher - not to mention the boy's visions: one of his father sharing a deer carcass with wolves whilst surrounded by humming pensioners; another featuring his mother and teacher mud-wrestling.
The viewer might just about pick his way through the storyline - despite its arty pretentiousness, it is at least linear - only to fall at the final hurdle when faced with two separate endings. Still, Agnieszka Podsiadlik and Staszek Cywka (as the mother and boy, respectively) are both engaging enough to carry the film. It was certainly worth watching once (I did so at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival), but I shall not bother to watch it again.
A fourteen year-old Polish boy is a prodigy, already having several academic degrees to his name. His ambitious, single and at times drunken mother pushes him even harder: she wants him to win a Europe-wide academic competition. But the boy just wants to be a boy, especially when his long-last father reappears on the scene.
So far, so kitchen-sink drama. But then there's the singing doomsday preacher - not to mention the boy's visions: one of his father sharing a deer carcass with wolves whilst surrounded by humming pensioners; another featuring his mother and teacher mud-wrestling.
The viewer might just about pick his way through the storyline - despite its arty pretentiousness, it is at least linear - only to fall at the final hurdle when faced with two separate endings. Still, Agnieszka Podsiadlik and Staszek Cywka (as the mother and boy, respectively) are both engaging enough to carry the film. It was certainly worth watching once (I did so at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival), but I shall not bother to watch it again.
