The Big Animal is probably the only movie about a middle-aged Polish couple who adopt a camel, but it's not faint praise to say that it's also the best one. In fact, director and co-star Jerzy Stuhr, working from a script by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, has made a film that's beautifully shot, well-acted, and whimsically charming. Zygmunt Sawicki (Stuhr) and his wife (Anna Dymna) are bemused, to say the least, when a camel (of the Bactrian or two-humped variety), having apparently been abandoned by the circus it was traveling with, turns up outside their front gate. They soon become quite attached to the big, gentle beast, especially the sweet-natured Zygmunt, who's fond of conducting one-sided conversations with it while they stroll through the small town. The locals, especially the younger ones kids, seem quite taken with this most unusual pet as well--at first, anyway. But petty jealousy, ignorance, intolerance, and greed (a camel in the Polish countryside? Gotta be a way to cash in on that) spoil the Sawickis' idyll, and soon Zygmunt is being interrogated by mealy-mouthed town council members and facing angry picketers in his own yard. The animal is "no use to the community." It's making the children late for school. Why, it's probably carrying some deadly African strain of venereal disease. The camel must go! Zygmunt's reaction to all of this ranges from rage and indignation to confusion and, ultimately, sadness and grief. Along the way, The Big Animal is filled with lovely moments, like the camel "singing" along as Zygmunt practices his clarinet or looming docilely outside the kitchen window as the couple eats dinner. It's also filmed in luminous black & white by cinematographer Pawel Edelman (an Oscar nominee for Roman Polanski's The Pianist); the final wintry sequence at the Warsaw Zoo is breathtaking. A 30-minute interview with Stuhr (in Polish with subtitles, just like the main attraction) is the principal bonus feature. --Sam Graham
THE BIG ANIMAL, scripted by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (DECALOGUE, THREE COLORS TRILOGY) and shot in shimmering black-and-white by Pawel Edelman (the Oscar®-nominated cinematographer for Roman Polanski's THE PIANIST) is an inspiring film celebrating the most human of themes: love, tolerance and sacrifice. The film's director (and longtime Kieslowski actor) Jerzy Stuhr stars as Zygmunt Sawicki, an ordinary bank clerk in a small Polish town, who awakens one morning to discover a camel outside his kitchen window. As he and his wife (Anna Dymna) grow increasingly fond of their remarkable pet, the animal evokes their neighbors' jealousy … and greed. Although the Sawickis are determined to protect their cherished friend, the townspeople and local bureaucrats seem bent on exploiting the great beast. THE BIG ANIMAL is a charming fairy tale for grownups - a wise and cautionary parable about tolerance that is at once funny, compassionate and heartwarming.
Login
Add tags