Mill and Cross — 21st Szczecin Film Festival

Cast: Rutger Hauer, Michael York, Charlotte Rampling, Joanna Litwin, Marian Makula

Never before has art been so close to cinema. The hand of director Lech Majewski brings to life an extraordinary picture — Bruegel's Way of the Cross, with all its beauty, severity and cruelty.

Thanks to new technologies, the director shows the fate of the 12th character from the picture. The production of the film took 3 years and required extraordinary patience and imagination. CGI technology (computer generated image, technology used, among others, in “Labyrinth of fauna” and “Avatars”) and 3D space were used. “The work done can be compared to weaving a huge digital tapestry built from multi-layered perspectives, atmospheric phenomena and people,” explains director Lech Majewski.

The role of Pieter Bruegel was played by Rutger Hauer. Michael York played the banker Jonghelinck, the collector of his paintings, and Maria Charlotte Rampling. “Mill and Cross” is part of a new trend of visionary cinema. Viewers during this film will be able to discover that the limits of imagination, for real artists, do not exist.

21st Szczecin Film Festival: Ekstraklasa: Retrospective — Lech Majewski

The undisputed protagonist of the 21st Szczecin Film Festival is Lech Majewski — one of the most original visionaries of world cinema, director, writer and painter, skillfully blurring the boundaries between the visual arts and the screen. This year's festival is not only an opportunity to admire his outstanding works, but above all a space for direct, creative dialogue with the Master. The retrospective invites you into the unique universe of the artist. In the halls of the Castle Cinema we will see productions that have delighted international critics, the moving “Mill and the Cross” as well as the mesmerizing “Garden of Earthly Delights”. Each session is an invitation to a world full of symbols, deep spirituality and painterly precision of the frame.

THE MILL AND THE CROSS, dir. Lech Majewski, 2011, 85', Poland/Sweden

The film, set in 1564 — the same year in which Pieter Bruegel painted his masterpiece The Road to Calvary — weaves the passion of Christ with the passion of Flanders oppressed politically and religiously by the Spanish. In this context, Bruegel, the most outstanding philosopher among painters, appears as Shakespeare of Flanders, and his painting tells of the tragedy of history and the value of tolerance. Among the more than five hundred characters in the picture, the screenwriters chose a dozen people whose fates intertwine in the film. Rutger Hauer portrays Peter Bruegel; Michel York plays banker Jonghelinck and Bruegel painting collector; and Charlotte Rampling plays Maria. “Mill and Cross” is a completely new challenge for Majewski — to recreate the world of the Flemish master, the photos are built in several layers using the latest computer graphics techniques and 3D effects.

21st Szczecin Film Festival at Cinema Zamek — program of events

19:00 — 20:30 Lech Majewski Retrospective: MILL AND CROSS — Kino Zamek

17:00 — 18:00 ZFF Pomerania Film at SFF: PERSONAL COMEDY — Kino Zamek

19:00 — 20:45 Lech Majewski Retrospective: GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS — Kino Zamek

17:00 — 19:00 DokumentArt at SFF: Polish-German exchange of art universities — Kino Zamek

19:15 — 21:45 DokumentArt at SFF: German Film in Poland — Kino Zamek

14:30 — 16:30 Crossing Borders. Direction Africa: LAMPART Festival at SFF — Kino Zamek

17:00 — 19:30 European Documentary Film Competition Block 1 — Kino Zamek

20:00 — 22:30 European Documentary Film Competition Block 2 — Kino Zamek

16:30 — 19:00 European Documentary Film Competition Block 3 — Kino Zamek

19:30 — 22:00 European Documentary Film Competition Block 4 — Kino Zamek

16:30 — 19:00 European Documentary Film Competition Block 5 — Kino Zamek

19:30 — 22:00 European Documentary Film Competition Block 6 — Kino Zamek