Director and costar Jerzy Stuhr's The Big Animal is by far the most whimsical, touching film ever made about a middle-aged Polish couple who adopt a camel (okay, so it's the only one). Stuhr plays Zygmunt Sawicki, who lives in a small town with his wife (Anna Dymna) in this tale scripted by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. The couple are bewildered, to say the least, when a camel—apparently abandoned by the circus—turns up outside their front gate. The beast is big but gentle, even endearing, and the Sawickis are soon very fond of their most unusual pet. It takes to “singing” along as Zygmunt, a bank clerk and member of the local band, practices his clarinet. It looms docilely outside the window as they eat dinner (these lovely shots, in luminous black and white, are the work of cinematographer Pawel Edelman, an Oscar nominee for Roman Polanski's The Pianist). It readily accompanies Zygmunt as he strolls through town, where kids gape as their teacher explains its diet, physiology, and so on. When some visiting TV folks show up and offer Zygmunt $4,000 to use the camel in a commercial shoot and he turns them down, the aghast locals reveal their true colors: slapping Zygmunt with a “livestock tax” and picketing against the couple. An unusual film that's also considerably charming, this is recommended. [Note: DVD extras include “Controlled Destinies: An Interview with Jerzy Stuhr” with the director (31 min.), the five-minute “Film Chronicle” making-of featurette, a PDF-accessible press kit, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a winsome film.] (S. Graham)
The Big Animal
New Yorker, 72 min., in Polish w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.99 Volume 21, Issue 6
The Big Animal
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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