The audience of the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival honoured the makers of “The Peasants” with a standing ovation after its world premiere. The first reviews, too, are full of admiration for the painted animation directed by DK and Hugh Welchman. The pair already have to their name the European Film Award and Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for the famous “Loving Vincent”. “The Peasants” opens in Polish cinemas on 13 October; before that, the film will take part in the Main Competition of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Today we present the full trailer of “The Peasants”.

SUCCESS IN TORONTO

Media attending the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) are writing glowingly about “The Peasants”:

 

Directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman have created another truly impressive animated work.

A dynamic, engrossing drama that brings the pleasures and pains of the past to life.

SCREEN DAILY

 

It is exactly what you might expect from the next film by the makers of “Loving Vincent” – and something entirely unexpected.

This is the best kind of cinematic raising of the stakes: one that not only repeats a past triumph but reaches deeper

Animating this 1,000-page novel in this way is not just adaptation, it is illumination.

It is also a story that on the surface seems remote from modern life, yet it speaks of social advancement, sexual liberation and misogyny expressed through public shaming – where the shtetl (in Yiddish, the word “shtetl” means “small town”) meets social media.

INDIEWIRE

 

The animated film you must see this year.

There are moments in this beautiful film that are like a Van Gogh painting.

THE DAILY BEAST

 

Never has a painting seemed so alive.

Every character is beautifully transferred from live-action footage to paint without losing any of the emotion.

NEXT BEST PICTURE

 

Visually stunning.

The sheer novelty of the technique and the undeniably unique visual side of these films make them essential viewing.

THE PLAYLIST

 

ADVANCE SALES

“The Peasants” opens in cinemas on 13 October. Nationwide ticket sales start as early as 29 September.

Shortly before the film’s release, Wydawnictwo Agora will publish an exclusive, illustrated edition of Władysław Stanisław Reymont’s Nobel Prize-winning work. In bookshops from 11 October.

The producer has started selling paintings from the film. The first hand-painted frames can be purchased in the online shop: https://shop.thepeasantsmovie.com.

AN EXTRAORDINARY PRODUCTION

“The Peasants”, like “Loving Vincent”, was made using the painted-animation technique. Yet the two films differ considerably. DK Welchman explains: – The scale of the two films cannot be compared. “Loving Vincent” is an intimate film with many static shots and dialogues. “The Peasants” is a true spectacle. The film has impressive dance and battle scenes. These are incredibly dynamic shots, the camera often follows the character, a lot happens within the frame. Working on the two films naturally brought challenges; on “Loving Vincent” we created many original solutions, but “The Peasants” raises the bar much higher.

Initially, the BreakThru Films studio shot the film with actors. “The Peasants” features a host of Polish stars, including Mirosław Baka, Ewa Kasprzyk, Andrzej Konopka, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Małgorzata Kożuchowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Maciej Musiał, Dorota Stalińska and Julia Wieniawa. The lead role of Jagna is played by Kamila Urzędowska.

– It was important to us that Jagna be played not only by “the most beautiful girl in all of Lipce”, but that she also have a blend of girlish carefreeness, sex appeal and feistiness. And that is what we saw in Kamila Urzędowska – the film’s producer Sean Bobbitt explains the choice.

Then more than 100 painters in four studios in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Serbia painted oil paintings on canvas, which became the key frames of the film. The artists have so far devoted more than 200,000 hours of work. The paintings were made with Cobra paints by Royal Talens. These paints are water-soluble, making them far more environmentally friendly and healthier for the painters. Animators complemented the shots painted by the artists so that the film as a whole would be smooth and pleasing to the eye.

“The Peasants” is nominated for the Golden Lions in the Main Competition of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. The gala screening will take place on 19 September.

 

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THE PEASANTS

Release date: 13 October

Synopsis: Against the backdrop of the changing seasons and seasonal field work unfold the fates of the Boryna family and the beautiful, mysterious Jagna. It is the women, especially the tragic figure of Jagna, who stand at the heart of the story. The unique microcosm of a village community becomes the pretext for telling a universal and remarkably topical story. A story of tragic love and life in a small community, where rules and the brutal laws of the game assign everyone a fixed place in the group, and stepping outside the narrow framework risks humiliation and rejection.

The film draws on the painting of the Young Poland period, which perfectly captures the mood of the novel. The big screen features interpretations of works by artists such as Józef Chełmoński, Ferdynand Ruszczyc and Leon Wyczółkowski.

Directed by: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
Screenplay: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
Cinematography: Radosław Ładczuk, Kamil Polak, Szymon Kuriata
Editing: DK Welchman, Patrycja Piróg, Miki Węcel
Production design: Elwira Pluta
Costumes: Katarzyna Lewińska
Make-up: Waldemar Pokromski
Music: Łukasz L.U.C. Rostkowski & Rebel Babel Orchestras (Laboratorium Pieśni, Julia Wieniawa, Tęgie Chłopy, Sutari, Szymon Lipiński)
Sound: Michał Jankowski
Casting director: Ewa Brodzka
Animation director: Piotr Dominiak
Special effects: Kamil Polak
VFX supervisor: Łukasz Mackiewicz
Line producer: Tomasz Wochniak
Producers: Sean Bobbitt, Hugh Welchman
Production: BreakThru Films
Executive producers: Laurie Ubben, Steve Muench, Sita Saviolo, DK Welchman
Co-producers: Ivan Pribićević, Jelena Angelovski, Agnė Adomėnė
Co-production: CANAL+, DIGITAL KRAFT, Art Shot, Narodowe Centrum Kultury
Co-financing: Polish Film Institute, Polish National Foundation, Mazovia Warsaw Film Commission
Distribution: Next Film
International sales agent: New Europe Film Sales
Partners: Juice, TELEVISOR Studio, Centrum Technologii Audiowizualnych, GS Animation

Cast (roles used in the animation): Kamila Urzędowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Mirosław Baka, Sonia Mietielica, Ewa Kasprzyk, Cezary Łukaszewicz, Małgorzata Kożuchowska, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Dorota Stalińska, Andrzej Konopka, Mateusz Rusin, Maciej Musiał, Julia Wieniawa