How Much Does the Trojan Horse Weigh?

Colour, 35 mm
Poland, 2008, 122 min
IP – International premiere
Section: 20 Years of Freedom

Synopsis

It’s the dawn of the new millennium and successful businesswoman Zosia is celebrating her fortieth birthday with her dream partner, scriptwriter Kuba, and Florka, her daughter from her first marriage. She is quite unaware that her fond wish to be fifteen years younger is about to come true… She wakes up in the morning next to her ex-husband Darek in the timeless year of 1987, in the knowledge that her ideal man, Kuba, exists somewhere and that she’ll have to find him in order to secure her blissful future. She also has to make sure she has a daughter and drives away her dull husband. Above all, however, she will have to face the past again and wade through the wretched mire of the former regime. Her task is exacerbated by her knowledge of the future: she knows how the political reversal will affect the lives of her friends. Using striking images, the director plays around with the props from both time planes and incorporates surreal ideas, while also addressing the issue of the weight of the Trojan horse: in the story’s fairytale ending, Florka’s question is reliably answered by ideal Kuba.

About the director

Juliusz Machulski (b. 1955, Olsztyn, Poland), actor, screenwriter, director of genre films, and producer, graduated from PWSFTViT and was awarded a grant to study at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, USA (1984-85); he taught film direction at Hunter College in New York (1993). His debut Va Banque (Vabank, 1981) won a series of domestic and international awards, as did his subsequent films: Sex Mission (Seksmisja, 1984), Va Banque II (Vabank II, 1985), Déja vu (1988), King Size (Kingsajz, 1988), V.I.P. (1991), The Squadron (Szwadron, 1992), Girl Guide (1995), Kiler (1997), Two Kilers (Kilerów 2-óch, 1999), Money Isn’t Everything (Pieniądze to nie wszystko, 2001), Superproduction (Superprodukcja, 2002), Vinci (2004) and How Much Does the Trojan Horse Weigh? (2008). His work develops from ironic reflections of ethical failings in Poles in recent and contemporary times, with stories created via the witty combination of criminal motifs and comic sequences.