Jancio Wodnik - Jan Jakub Kolski

un film che non si vede tutti i giorni, con una musica bellissima, di Zygmunt Konieczny.
racconta una storia di poteri speciali, di viaggi e attese, di credulità e di chi capitalizza, un film dell'est Europa, realismo magico, dice qualcuno.
merita di essere visto - Ismaele

The old man Johnnie lives a peaceful but eccentric rural life with his young wife Veronica. Shortly after conceiving the child they have longed for, Johnnie discovers that he possesses previously unsuspected healing powers, and can control the elements, water in particular. He sets out to bring his magic to the wortd at large, leaving Veronica to fend for herself. A few miles into his journey he runs into Stygma, a Harley- riding carnival con-artist and fake stigmatist, and they team up, drawing disciples and hangers-on to the entourage that eventually makes a fat living from the countryside through the combined efforts of Johnnie's faith-healing miracles and Stygma's hokum. Veronica calls for Johnnie when she is about to give birth, but the conjurer considers himself beyond the obligations of family life. As if marked by Satan, the child is born with a tail, and Johnnie simultaneously loses his mysterious powers. He wakes up, abandoned by the people, with only Veronica watching over him. The beautiful love that had been between them has extinguished. Johnnie tries to work the last miracle - he decides to turn back time...

da qui

The washing of the feet is a Christian ritual that dates back to the Bible. And cleanliness is next to godliness, as they say. But when a middle-aged farmer begins to notice his power to manipulate water, first in obsessively washing his young bride’s feet and later in silly tricks, he believes he’s been granted the power to heal and assumes the role of messiah. In the 1993 film written and directed by Jan Jakub Kolski, Jancio Wodnik (aka Johnnie Aquarius), it’s revealed that a very thin line separates divinity from corruption: water may signify purity, but contamination is apt to set in at any time.
The theme certainly isn’t new, and Kolski wanders on the side of the path once tread by Luis Buñuel, so expertly from Viridiana(1961) to Simon of the Desert (1965) and The Milky Way (1969). While Buñuel imitators generally miss the mark — Wojciech Has’s ponderous The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) comes to mind — Kolski’s blend of abstract comedy, sensuality, and religious hocus pocus has a flavor and style that is fresh and appealing. Decidedly unlike Buñuel, however, Kolski favors linear construction, shying away from the surrealist’s abject cynicism, and heads toward the kind of morality Don Luis would’ve gagged on…

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Magic realism. Reality mixed with weirdness. a Normal story intertwined with strange elements. (but not "strange" as defined by "The Eraserhead" etc.). Nice altogether. Someone wrote "wonderful" - that's it (but of course not the Disney "wonderful").
I would like to recommend it, but would not know what to compare it to. Strange but funny and real at the same time. Not too 'artsy', actually, not 'artsy' at all. Lots of funny clashes between the protagonist and the reality outside. "Oh, Jesus crucified.". "No, welded".
Slightly in the style of what GG Marquez could have written (less magic though).

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