THE PEASANTS (CHLOPI) World Cinema

Poland’s Oscar^® submission for Best International Feature

Screening to be followed by a conversation with directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman and composer Lukasz Rostkowski.

Made up of over 40,000 oil paintings, this awe-inspiring adaptation of Władysław Reymont’s Nobel Prize winning novel is the latest animated film from Oscar®-nominated directing duo DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman (LOVING VINCENT). In 19th century Poland, the rural village of Lipce sustains itself on its farmland. Jagna is its beguiling young beauty caught in a lust-filled affair with the married farmhand Antek (Robert Gulacyzk). But when she’s forced to marry his wealthy landowner father, it sets off a chain of events that will rip the town apart. Taking inspiration from the Young Poland modernist movement, the paintings range from swirling impressionism to hyperrealism, culminating in visually dazzling sequences bolstered by symphonic folk tunes from rapper turned composer Lukasz “L.U.C.” Rostkowski. Telling the story of a young woman caught in the cruel hands of the patriarchy, THE PEASANTS is at times brutal but nevertheless a stunningly immersive experience deserving of the big screen. –Josh Gardner