Elephant [Slon] **** (2022, Jan Hrynkiewicz, Pawel Tomaszewski, Ewa Skibinska) – Classic Movie Review 12,368

The 2022 Polish gay romantic drama film Elephant [Slon] stars Jan Hrynkiewicz as young Bartek, who runs a horse farm and looks after his ungrateful mother in Southern Poland. Bartek falls in love with a musician who comes home for his father’s funeral.

Writer-director Kamil Krawczycki’s 2022 Polish gay romantic drama Elephant [Slon] stars Jan Hrynkiewicz, Pawel Tomaszewski, and Ewa Skibinska.

Jan Hrynkiewicz stars as young man Bartek, who runs a small horse farm in the mountains, and dutifully looks after his possessive, depressive, ungrateful mother (Ewa Skibinska), in Southern Poland. One day their middle-aged neighbour dies of a heart attack and his musician son Dawid (Pawel Tomaszewski) comes back to the village for the funeral. Bartek becomes fascinated by Dawid and falls in love with him. Now he faces an agonising choice of love and freedom on the one hand or his family and farm obligations on the other. He loves his horses, and his countryside, if not his mother and sister, and certainly not his homophobic neighbours. He’s a very nice man, too nice to take the selfish easy way out.

Simple, direct, straightforward, and satisfying, Elephant [Slon] goes for it and gets there. Ah, yes, the subject is prejudice in Poland, apparently, as Bartek finds a soul mate in Dawid. Sounds of trouble ahead. After some indecision, Bartek decides to go for it and, before going, checks himself out in the mirror. He seems to like what he sees. And, why not? He’s a nice looking man. Bartek and Dawid embark on a love affair, but, will it be a brief encounter?

Bartek has one, unique chance for freedom and happiness. He’s a strong young man, physically and mentally, but his he strong enough to grab it? His ailing mother is dragging him down every which way, and because he’s such a nice man, he can hardly bear to leave her to her own devices. She warns him not to spend his time with Dawid. He’s like her husband, a quitter and a leaver, whose leaving prompted her breakdown.

Then Bartek’s pregnant sister Daria (Wiktoria Filus) comes back to live on the farm again. She’s supposed to be being joined by her husband in a few days, but he’s a quitter and a leaver, too, and Bartek warns the sister he won’t be coming.

Bartek’s nice middle-aged neighbour Danuta (Ewa Kolasinska) seems to know all about him, and all about Dawid, as apparently does everybody else in the village. She calls him an elephant (why?), tells him to go for it, and gives him a little model elephant to take away. But then she’s as crazy as a box of monkeys. Danuta’s ancient mother asks Bartek why her daughter is calling him an elephant. We learn from a TV item that the Polish right-wing is trying to outlaw gays and gays marriages, and that 140,000 people have signed a petition to support a new law to this effect in parliament.

The more adventurous, even reckless Dawid has had enough of the village and the villagers, and wants to get the heck out of Dodge again once the funeral is over, and to take Bartek with him. They could start a new life in Iceland. Bartek can’t commit… Dawid says you know where to find me. We’re in for a Call Me By Your Name situation, or even a Brokeback Mountain situation. Or are we?

Kamil Krawczycki’s hold on the story, characters and themes is good and strong, and he moves his appealing and attractive film smoothly along, with beautiful visuals, shot in the Pieniny Mountains, Malopolskie, Poland. Even so, it wouldn’t work if you didn’t like Jan Hrynkiewicz and Pawel Tomaszewski, but they are easy to like, especially Hrynkiewicz. The going’s much bumpier if you start with an unlikeable hero like the one in Bros.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,368

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