Filmoteka Muzeum

Ewa Szabłowska comments on the film:

The funny German-sounding title hides a movie on a very Polish topic. Pompenzuballen is a glance on Aleksandria, a village in which Kaczmarek used to spend his vacations as a child so he has a special sentimental relationship with it. However, it is not a nostalgic postcard but a distanced, nearly anthropological analysis: of the place, the locals, and their mysterious customs. Kaczmarek’s perspective is a view of an amused stranger, a view of an alien who contemplates various local peculiarities: the meeting of the farmers’ wives’ association, cheerleaders dancing in the rhythm of a car alarm, a drinking bout or a radio broadcast on the benefits from the gathering of mushrooms. Kaczmarek introduces some additional distance to the object of his studies with stylistic operations to which he subjects his narrative: he cites fragments of classic movies or American commercials from the 1950s. He discloses the inner story of the casting he organized before the movie: all candidates had the same acting task. They just had to… hug each other. The Polish provinces in Pompenzuballen is viewed as a shivering, glimmering image in a kaleidoscope, a delicate move is enough for what we see to be transformed into something completely different.

Quoted from: www.nowehoryzonty.pl

Year: 2010
Duration: 65'30"
Language: Polish (english subtitles)
Source:

© Krzysztof Kaczmarek

Acquisition: deposit
Ownership form: deposit