The Day of the Wacko

Colour, 35 mm
Poland, 2002, 97 min
Section: East of the West
Oficiální stránky: www.swir.pl

Synopsis

Forty-four-year-old Adaś Miauczyński is a typical frustrated intellectual of the post-socialist era. As a badly-paid Polish high school teacher he has ample reason to hate the school and its students. He lives in a typical apartment in a prefab housing complex, which offers him a plethora of impulses for getting upset. Every morning he ritualistically devotes himself to hygienic operations which both disgust and relax him. He doesn’t like getting up since he fears each new day. He’s horrified in advance by contact with the hated outside world, as well as with his ex-wife and teenage son. He turns on the television while eating and reacts with disgust to squabbles between members of parliament, offensive to a Polish patriot. The world of high ideals elevates him, the mundanity of everyday life brings him down. Above all, he takes umbrage at the vulgar ubiquity of advertising. For this reason he assiduously swallows pills for improving his intellectual and physical condition. He vents his permanent dissatisfaction through impertinent, almost rude behaviour. He has become accustomed to talking to himself and to monologues in which the word ‘fuck’ is luxuriously frequent. The word proves eloquently descriptive of not only this particular portrait, but also of the mental collapse of impoverished intellectuals of our time.

About the director

Marek Koterski (b. 1942, Cracow) studied Polish philology at the University of Wroclaw, then history of art and painting. He got his training in film at Lodz’s Film School (PWSFTViT), graduating in 1971. After his studies he made a career for himself as a writer and mainly theatre director; his television shows are also highly acclaimed. He has shot a number of short and medium-length films, and has written and directed several feature films: The Madhouse (Dom wariatóv, 1984), which won the Polish Critics’ Award for Best Film of the Year; Inner Life (Źycie wewnetrzne, 1986), awarded the Grand Prix, the Golden Gdansk Lions for Best Director at the Gdansk FF, the Polish Film Critics’ Award, Syrenka Warszawska for the Best Film of 1987; Porno (1989), the most popular film of 1990; Nothing Funny (Nic śmiesznego, 1995); I love You (Ailawju, 1999) and The Day of the Wacko (Dzień świra, 2002), awarded the Grand Prix and Best Actor (Marek Kondrat) at the 27th Gdynia FF.