When three grown-up siblings bring their ailing mother to the hospital it turns out she is no longer their mother, she is the protagonist of a canonical piece of literature, and they are Staś, Kali, and Mea; there is even an elephant, should it be necessary.
Piotr Domalewski—director of such award-winning films as “Silent Night” and “Choir Boys”—takes this canvas and paints a bittersweet, yet amusing story about family, community-building, and the need to broaden one’s horizons.
“In the Desert and the Wilderness,” one of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s most controversial books, is accused of spreading racism and colonial ressentiments, and its solid place on high-school reading lists is often called into question. Domalewski takes a critical look at its narratives, juxtaposing them with a personal family story and the imperial drives that the Seafaring and Colonial League once stirred in Poles.
The script uses fragments of Grzegorz Łyś’s reportage, “Bzik kolonialny. II Rzeczpospolitej przypadki zamorskie,” Wydawnictwo W.A.B, 2023
