Kamil Polak‘s “The Lost town of Switez” is one of those jewels we saw a couple of months ago at the LIAF and keeps doing its particular world tour. And a couple of weeks ago it was awarded with NY’s short film festival “Best animation” award. By Dani Rosenberg, Yoav Gross, Israel / Palestine. Switez| The Lost Town of Switez| Switez - Die verlorene Stadt by Kamil Polak, Poland / Switzerland / France.
The animated film The Lost Town of Switez is based on the 19th-century epic poem by Poland's greatest writer, Adam Mickiewicz, about a ghostly town deluged after a bloody massacre in medieval times, which now lies at the bottom of a remote lake. It is an apocalyptic tale of destruction, religious miracles and spectral visitations. The film imports paintings into digital 3D combined with both CG animation and visual special effects to create a mesmerizing aesthetic experience, set to a specially-commissioned full choral and orchestral score. It dramatically merges literature, painting, music and animation.
Director:Kamil Polak
Genre:Adventure, Animation, Music, Mystery, Short
BERLINALE 2011Poland
by Dorota Hartwich
After Susie Templeton’s Peter and Wolf (Oscar winner 2008), the Quay brothers’ Mask (presented at this year’s Rotterdam) and Marek Skrobecki’s Danny Boy (selected at the Stuttgart and Amsterdam festivals), a new production by Lodz’s Se-ma-for studios will soon arrive on the international scene: Polish director Kamil Polak’s The Lost Town of Switez, which will have its world premiere on February 16 in the short film competition at the 61st Berlinale (February 10-20, 2011).
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Having started out as the director’s final-year student project, The Lost Town of Switez attracted interest from numerous professionals along the way, including the company which became its main producer: Human Arc, a Warsaw-based studio specialised in 3D graphics. The film combines classic animation based on the traditional techniques of oil painting with 3D digital animation. Seven years of work involving 131 people were needed to complete the 20-minute film.
The Lost Town of Switez is adapted from the epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s greatest writer of the Romantic period. The film visually explores a legend about a flood that mysteriously submerged the town of Switez. The action unfolds on two temporal levels: in the Middle Ages and Mickiewicz’s era.
According to its producers, the film is an apocalyptic fable about destruction and miracles, about the eternal battle between good and evil, about faith and hope. The plot is punctuated by an orchestra and choir score specially composed by Irina Bogdanovich.
Finally, Se-ma-for studios recently started a new co-production: the 26-part Koyaa by Slovenia’s Koljia Saksid, the only artist in his country to work with animation and puppets.
(Translated from French)
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