The Assistant

The Assistant is the latest film by Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal. The screenplay is based on the novel by Swiss writer Robert Walser, *The Villa under the Evening Star* (reissued as *The Man for All Seasons*). The film premiered at the 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam and was also screened at the 25th New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław. 

Film description:
Joseph Marti (Piotr Trojan) works as an anonymous bookbinder. It is only a mistake—a poorly bound book that his supervisor shoves in his face—that sets him apart. This is a turning point for Joseph—he throws off his apron and walks away. However, he feels that neither his presence there nor his departure matters. Nor does the passage of time, which shifts from the present into the past. 

Joseph ends up in a suburban villa from the early 20th century, where he takes a job as an assistant to the engineer-inventor Tobler (Andrzej Konopka). He gradually becomes a jack-of-all-trades there: he keeps the accounts, handles the correspondence, and serves as a confidant to the lady of the house (Agnieszka Żulewska). He obediently carries out all orders. 

The fulfillment of Tobler’s ambitions seems like an increasingly distant dream. The family’s financial situation becomes dire. Faced with growing tension in the Toblers’ marriage, as well as acts of violence, Joseph decides to leave. 

The film stands out for its distinctive visual aesthetics; Sasnal’s camera work depicts an intense world, suspended between dream and reality, with painterly grandeur. The atmosphere of absurd hopelessness is reinforced by the film’s soundtrack, which is pulsating, anachronistic, and full of emotion.

Wilhelm Sasnal on the film:
“Once again, it turns out that the world is still governed by the same mechanisms. To show their immutability, we decided to take the main character out of the present day and place him in the reality of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Regardless of the era, Joseph struggles with the same fears, uncertainty regarding work and the future. The same fear was, in fact, shared by the writer Robert Walser himself, who was admitted to a psychiatric institution as a result of an acute state of anxiety, restlessness, and hallucinations, during which he heard strange voices accusing him of laziness. Even today, ever-larger segments of society lack stable employment, and the phenomenon of the precariat poses new challenges for both the individual and society as a whole.”