Sztuczki - Tricks - Gezauberte Wirklichkeit (2007)

Perhaps the best film I saw during the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, Stzuczki is the story of Stefek (Rafal Guzniczak), a young boy trying to reunite his father with his family. Director Andrzej Jakimowski shot the film in Walbrzych (near Breslow), Poland, and dedicated it to his sister, who often used tricks to teach him about the world, much as Stefek’s sister, Elka (Ewelina Walendziak), does to him.

Stefek is free-spirited, independent. He learns about the world by exploring it through human experimentation and manipulation. Elka has a more passive approach to life and believes things should happen naturally. Jakimowski uses these two characters to explore the motif of love by free-will vs. love through manipulation.

While Jakimowski’s treatment originally gave equal time and to Elka and Stefek, Jakimowski decided to focus on the boy, whose story line had the most potential for growth and maturation.

Elka and Stefek are from a broken home, though the film does not especially focus on their mother or any hardships they encounter in a single-parent home. When Stefek was just an infant, his father left the family for another woman. Convinced that he has seen his father at the train station, Stefek, with one foot in reality and another in fantasy, launches a superstitious scheme to propel his father back into town and into their lives.

Stzuczki is a cute movie. It is simple and also borderline philosophical. At times I forgot I was watching a movie and found myself personally interested in the lives of the characters.

Stzuczki was recently awarded the Special Prize by the International Jury at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival.

STZUCYKI – TRICKS

WITH: Iwona Fornalczyk (Mother), Rafal Guzniczak (Stefek), Tomasz Sapryk (Father), Ewelina Walendziak (Elka)

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