Bukolika

Director Karol Pałka observed his protagonists over the course of four years. First from afar. It took a long time before he was allowed into the house; before the protagonists were able to trust this stranger with the camera. The result is an intimate portrait of two women who seem to be almost from another era with their mixture of deep religiosity and modesty. With contemplative tenderness, the camera captures scenes of animals being stroked both in front of and inside the house, dedicates time to the Catholic devotional items in the kitchen cupboard and on the sofa table and opens the soul of the viewer to a rhythm of life that is shaped by the cycle of nature and religious conviction. And yet Pałka doesn’t romanticise. The photographer illuminates his protagonists in a manner akin to Dušan Hánák in his documentary film classic "Pictures of the Old World" (ČSSR 1972): employing a mixture of respect, journalistic distance and artistic fascination. Every shot is a still life, brought back to the tumultuous present by a contrasting gothic-pop soundtrack from today’s indie charts: opposites are there to attract, but also to tolerate one another.

Obenkino: original version with English subtitles.