The Peasants is a hand painted stop motion animation film from the polish animation studio BreakThru films, directed by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman. They both bring the experience from 2017’s Loving Vincent, a film presented in the same style. This film is adapted from a novel of the same name, spanning four acts - each season of the year. It is a mind blowing achievement to see the frames of this film come to life, blending the motion from live action with fully created environments. The content and acting is also emotionally impactful, and admittedly, draining.
We start out in Autumn, thrust into the town of Lipce, where Jagna is living. The story follows her through the year that she grows up, changing in herself but also the perception of her that the townsfolk take on. The village is small, and its size is felt throughout, with everyone knowing everyone’s business and making it theirs.
I think there is a universal understanding of this type of place, no matter the time period or country, a small town remains the same. Seeing the interactions between villagers reminded me of films like The Banshees of Inisherin where this type of community is played a little bit more comedically, but the impact of their nosiness is still oppressive like the people of Lipce.
The story has a fairytale element to it, where the jealousy of these people fester and alienate the protagonist because of her prospects and beauty.
Jagna is in love with the richest peasant's son, Antek, who is married already but has reciprocating feelings towards Jagna. Antek’s father, Maciej, has been recently widowed and is looking for another wife. He takes Jagna as his new bride.
This dynamic plays out with a dramatic conclusion of Antek being kicked out of the farm with his wife, to fend for himself, and leaves Jagna with the pursuit of love with Antek or money and land with Maciej.
The film has three other acts, but this one alone feels like it packs in so much. The rest of the film keeps pace pretty well, dipping a little bit in the middle, and then ramping up for an incredibly impactful conclusion to the story.
Each act looks just as good as the last, all with interesting environments and design elements to look at, reflecting the season we’re in with a new life to the world. The winter is fiercely cold and dull, showcasing the lighting techniques of the indoor lamps and the cold beam of the moon shining down on the frozen soil. The spring feels fresh, with life coming back into the grass and crops showing the first signs of life. The cold can still be felt with the costumes worn by the characters, and slight blue hue to the daylight. The summer intro alone is a perfect presentation of the season, with golden hour blasting through the densely blooming trees.
All these seasons add so much to the visual stimulation of the film, while the plot keeps a pretty steady tone of the dark and dramatic.
The dark and dramatic is kept alive through the soundtrack of the film, ripping through the silence with a norse inspired sound that is both contemporary and classic rolled into one. The music is by Polish rapper L.U.C. He creates a harsh and hopeless world that legitimately “slaps” as the youths of yesteryear may say. It hits exactly at the right moment to heighten the emotion of the moment, without overpowering it and drowning out the content of the story.
I will say, the music that plays for the last 20 to 30 minutes of the film blew me away with how evocative it was. It felt cathartic for emotions I didn’t know I was feeling.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this film, and am so p(l)easantly surprised at what we got. The film seems like a painful amount of work and precision to complete, but if these artists are up for more, I am up for them to adapt anything in their style. I will be especially on board if L.U.C is coming back to blast the speakers with the emotion he did in this one. My only warning is that It does take a minute or two to get used to the motion of the movie. I was worried I was going to get a little bit motion sick with the fluid movement of the characters, against the more static backdrops. But once you’re in, it feels correct.
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