ZIMA

Synopsis

It grows slowly as an icicle, but one day it drops and crashes. Anka loves cats. And Jesus. In a winter silence the lagoon freezes and the unspoken resurfaces like crack on ice. Mosaic portrait of a small fisherman's village where human to human, human to animal, animal to animal interdepend on a delicate balance of warm tender care and cold emotional cruelty. An eerie story of loneliness and community narrated with magical realism.

Statement of the director(s)

"ZIMA" is a mosaic portrait of a small community and family, neighborly and inter-species relations. These mutual dependencies balance on the border of tenderness and cruelty, care and emotional coldness.

The picture is maintained in the style of an Eastern winter fairy tale, but also a horror in the convention of
magical realism. It uses the popular motif of a town cut off from the world and a closed, stuffy community. It exploits the atmosphere of the Polish province, its problems, everyday life and customs. Winter is a time when the days are short and most of the day is covered in darkness. Winter is a period when you have to protect yourself from frost and fight for survival. Holidays are a mythical time of family warmth, which, however, we still lack.

The main characters are two village outcasts, Anka and Łukasz. The plot revolves around the mysterious Cat Island in the middle of the reservoir, where unwanted cats are abandoned. One frosty winter, the reservoir freezes over.