Elephant gay movie
The autumnal landscape of southern Poland shines in writer-director Kamil Krawczycki’s new feature, Elephant (Słoń), adding fresh layers to the familiar tale of a rural adolescent man discovering his sexuality in a homophobic town.
Bartek (Jan Hrynkiewicz) works multiple jobs to sustain himself and his mother, looking after their farm animals by day and helping out in a local bar in the evening. When a neighbour on a nearby farm dies, his estranged gay son Dawid (Paweł Tomaszewski) returns to deal with his affairs. While the locals warn Bartek to stay away from Dawid, he can’t aid but be drawn to the erudite stranger with piercing cerulean eyes and an outlook on life that&#;s unfamiliar to him.
Krawczycki imbues Bartek’s life with a claustrophobic feel, while also revelling in the gorgeous forests around him. Cinematographer Jakub Sztuk fills the frame with affluent browns and oranges, coupled with a cold, wet mood. Its small-minded township stirs memories of Brokeback Mountain. This isn’t the grey, urban Poland more often seen on screen, but more like the rural setting of Tomasz Jedr
MOVIE: ELEPHANT (SLON)
STARRING: JAN HRYNKIEWICZ, PAWEŁ TOMASZEWSKI
DIRECTED BY: KAMIL KRAWCZYCKI
’s RATING: 3 ½ STARS (Out of 4)
Elephant is the English translation for the Polish synonyms “slon”. It’s a curious name for a motion picture about a gay traits living near the mountains in Southern Poland. Yet back in , a Polish zoo was under fire for supposedly having a “gay” elephant. Was he really gay? He seemed to have problems with the females of the species and preferred to spend time with the guys. It’s an amusing yet somewhat troubling story that does in some ways echo what happens in the brand-new film from writer/director Kamil Krawczycki, who based the story on some of his own experiences growing up in Poland.
There is no elephant per se in the film, except for a small figurine that serves as a symbol of the like that develops between Bartek, a horse farmer and Dawid, who returns to the small community after 15 years when his father dies. Clues are given that, according to Bartek’s mother, he had “done awful things.” The most we can amass though is that Dawid’s biggest crime was b
Polish LGBT distributor Tongariro Releasing has secured all-rights deals for North America, the UK, France and German-speaking Europe for Kamil Krawczycki’s Elephant.
Elephant world premiered as a special reviewing at New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw on Wednesday (July 27).
The film has sold to TLA Releasing for the USA, Canada and the UK, Optimale for France, and to Berlin-based Salzgeber Medien for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Elephant was inspired by Krawczycki’s own experiences growing up in his home town in the mountains of Southern Poland.
It’s the story of a young man who runs a miniature horse farm, and looks after his possessive mother. Their relation is not easy but it becomes even more difficult when he falls in desire with an older musician Dawid, and begins to aspire of leaving home.
The film was shot on location last autumn at a farm near Warsaw and in the Podhale region, sometimes referred to as the “Polish Highlands”.
“This is a story of a new guy whose family obligations affect his freedom, but he manages to cloak his des
John Robinson in Elephant
Van Sant's high school death poem
"Uneven though he may be, Van Sant rivals Steven Soderbergh as the mad scientist of commercial filmmakers -- and the wildly polarizing Elephant is his most successful experiment to date."-- J. Hoberman, Village Voice.
Elephant is as cunningly constructed as it is inexplicable. It’s a tightly woven web of aimless moments at a Portland high school. They crisscross, all leading up to death. In the end: violence perpetrated by two boys from the tall school who massacre their fellow students and teachers with newly bought automatic weapons, as at Columbine. Along the way, an encounter between two boys in an outside hallway keeps recurring, shot from different directions and focusing on different kids: a trio of bulemic cuties (Carrie, Nicole and Brittany); a football hunk they admire (Nathan); a homely girl loner who won't wear shorts for gym (Michele); and the two boys themselves, one posing (John), the other taking his picture (Eli). There’s a scene in a classroom where being lgbtq+ is discussed: the camera move