Karol Chwierut | Kolorowy Obrazek (Colorful Picture) / 2020

runaway

by Douglas Messerli

 

Karol Chwierut, Adrianna Fal, Ewelina Hamulczuk, and Jakub Ormaniec (screenplay), Karol Chwierut (director) Kolorowy Obrazek (Colorful Picture) / 2020 [20 minutes]

 

Two affable young gay men, Kacper (Jakub Ormaniec) and Michał (Karol Sajnok) wake up with the alarm in the bed they share together as a couple. Kacper is obviously the more outgoing of the two, immediately trying to rise his friend, turning on the radio as loudly as possible so that Michał must get up simply to tell him to shut it down. They might be kicked out of their apartment, he suggests, particularly since their door has just been terribly graffitied over with the words: “Faggots to Gas Chambers.”

     The synopsis warns us that the events of the film “are inspired by the current situation of the LGBTQ community in Poland,” so we know that despite the next quite pleasant few moments, in which Kacper dresses and runs off to work, and Michał, an artist, attempts without success to create a new work of art, we are in for some terrifying events.

       Yet when Kacper returns home and they eat, nothing seems to be that terribly amiss. Michał has attempted to clear off the door but cannot remove a spot until an elderly neighbor woman brings him a cleaning liquid which immediately removes the graffiti, she telling him that one of her family members is also gay, and she has come to accept it.

      In the middle of the night Michał realizes what he wants to paint, a portrait of his companion, which he is certain will help get him into the Academy of Fine Arts. So Kacper poses, first in the nude and then in various parts of clothing mugging the entire time while his lover paints.

       During some of their fun and games, Kacper asks how he might feel about going to New York, but basically his conversation seems to be about another friend, and Michał ignores the comment.

       Meanwhile, the local thugs, sports boys back from a soccer match, sing ugly songs beneath their apartment window. Always the joker, Kacper takes up a bucket of slops and throws it down upon them, they swearing to get even. Michał is troubled, but Kacper puts on the record player and insists his lover dance with him in to a slow jazz piece.

       That evening Kacper asks Michał “What’s your plan, you know, for life.” Michał answers simply: “Life? Life is simple. I want to wake in the morning, and go to sleep at night, and in between to exactly what I want to do. In my case it’s painting.”

       But Kacper has other plans, certain if nothing else he wants to “Definitely to leave this place,” since, he declares, “I want to a lot of things that don’t make sense.”

       The painting is almost finished and Kacper has some good news that he has been accepted for an internship that is important. The two share an Italian meal made by Michał, enjoying themselves as they talk about their plans for the next few days, which turns into the beginning of an argument with Kacper revealing the internship is in New York, arguing that they’ll live on the 34th floor of a wonderful apartment building.

         Michał feels betrayed that the issues has been fully discussed within, and besides he’s just about to apply to the Academy, his life is “here” in Poland.

        But we already know their life is going to altered in other ways as we watch the thugs pull up in cars, pull out their weapons, and move in on their apartment. And before the boys can even comprehend what has happened the two thugs are upon them, one slugging but holding back Michał as the second goes for Kacper with a bat, bloodying him and seeming to drown him in a pail of slops before finally leaving. The screen goes black with silence.

       It is a week later. We see Michał wake up alone in their bed, witnessing the badly bruised or broken ribs he must daily bind and the huge bruise under his eye and moves deeply into his cheek.

       In the next frame he is at the Academy, painting in hand when the phone rings. It is clearly Kacper asking how it went, Michał responding that he’s still waiting for the interview. When is he coming back? In response we hear Kacper saying that having been in hospital for days means he has a lot to catch up on, after all a job in New York has to be deserved.

      “Call me any time you can,” answers Michał, “and don’t forget me.”

       Michał Jabloński is called for his interview. He puts on a smile and enters the room.

       The film plays a loud rock song, the titles announcing that in Poland over 100 counties are so-called “LGBT free zones,” That’s one-third of Poland where anything to do with LGBT equality is now not allowed.”

       A bigot in front of crowd is lamenting, apparently about LGBT people, “Today they are trying to push us and our children into a different ideology.” When an ideology comes from a textbook that sexualizes young children, he argues, “I say no! I say no to my grandchildren being raised this way.” In the background we see a large paper LGBT rainbow being burned. “They are not people but an ideology.”

       Another woman says that she would give advice to young people, leave Poland. “It’s not going to be better. It’s going to get worse.” The Kanye West song ends, “Run away as fast as you can.”

       This excellent short is less a film about homophobia as it is a story about how LGBT individuals are being forced to immigrate from their own country. Presumably things in the US are not in any way as terrible as it is now in Poland…and other countries such as Hungary and of course Russia, the remnants of the Soviet world which have never quite been able to fully embrace full democracy and open points of view, and certainly sexual differences.

        Sadly, it reminded me somewhat of scenes now happening throughout the USA.

 

Los Angeles, August 26, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (August 2022).