The Linnet

1982 · 92 min · PL · 7.1 (21 votes)

Dir. Witold Leszczyński · Starring Krzysztof Majchrzak, Anna Seniuk, Joanna Sienkiewicz, Jerzy Block, Marek Siudym, Tomasz Jarosiński · Music Wojciech Karolak

ComedyDrama

Kaziuk, a stubborn peasant and his pregnant wife live in a backwood village, unaffected by the civilization. The village is once visited by a couple of wanderers, and strange things start to happen afterward. A new schoolteacher is sent to the area. She stirs erotic fantasies in Kaziuk. In a stir of frustration Kaziuk cuts down a family tree - a sacrilegious act in the eyes of his family. Going a step further and using a scythe for cutting the rye instead of a sickle brings the whole village against him.

VIBE

A darkly comic and unsettling look at a remote village where tradition clashes with primal urges. It feels like a fever dream, slowly building dread amidst pastoral beauty. A film that lingers, like a half-forgotten folk tale.

darkly comicunsettlingpastoralmelancholicslow-burnarthouse dramafolk horror adjacentrural realismtradition vs modernitysexual repressioncommunity conflictsacrilege