Europa
Following structural tradition, Europa begins with a title card about
the 16 mm film material used and its development process. This is followed by the announcement: “In another ten seconds the
action will begin.” Further title cards describe the scenery like a screenplay, which is peripherally based on Albert Camus’s
famous existentialist novel “The Stranger”. Music starts and counters the plot with its doo-wop style: “He’s a rebel, but
he’s always good to me.” Music and plot suddenly coincide, while associations and references to the title become manifest
through absence. Who or what is Europe? (Claudia Slanar)
Director's Biography
ANKA SASNAL, born in 1973 in Tarnów in Poland, studied
Polish literature and gender studies. As a screenwriter, editor, and filmmaker, she lives in Kraków together with Wilhelm
Sasnal, who was also born in Tarnów in 1972 and studied architecture and painting. WILHELM SASNAL attracted international
attention as a visual artist with a series of solo and group exhibitions in renowned international galleries and art institutions
with paintings, comic books, drawings, photographs, and videos. From the first joint film project onwards, significant characteristics
of their artistic collaboration are already visible: the intensive focus on language, texts, and literary models, which they
transform into an image language that suits them. An explicit political stance can be noted in their films – thematically
Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal circle around the current state of Polish society, rising xenophobia, the relationship of Polish society
to the Catholic church, and especially the recent Polish past during the Second World War. A dystopian worldview, although
not so much a pessimistic one – as they say themselves – may certainly be attributed to their work, along with an undisguised
interest in the “dark” side of human beings. Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal are no strangers to the festival audience in Linz, as
they have already been represented in the festival program twice in the past. In 2012, they won the main prize with It Looks
Pretty from a Distance, which premiered in Rotterdam, and then returned with Parasite in 2014.
// Films at CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival 2017
// Co-directed films: Słońce, to słońce mnie oślepiło (The Sun, the Sun Blinded Me, 2016), Huba (Parasite, 2014; CE’14), Aleksander (2013, doc), Z daleka widok jest piękny (It Looks Pretty from a Distance, 2011; CE’12), Świniopas (Swineherd, 2008)
// Films by Wilhelm Sasnal: Afternoon of a Faun (2015, short), Columbus (2014, short), Inhuman Hunger (2014, short), Kacper (2010, short), Europa (2007, short), Brazil (2005, short), Marfa (2005, short)
// Films at CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival 2017
// Co-directed films: Słońce, to słońce mnie oślepiło (The Sun, the Sun Blinded Me, 2016), Huba (Parasite, 2014; CE’14), Aleksander (2013, doc), Z daleka widok jest piękny (It Looks Pretty from a Distance, 2011; CE’12), Świniopas (Swineherd, 2008)
// Films by Wilhelm Sasnal: Afternoon of a Faun (2015, short), Columbus (2014, short), Inhuman Hunger (2014, short), Kacper (2010, short), Europa (2007, short), Brazil (2005, short), Marfa (2005, short)
Tribute 2017
Wilhelm
Sasnal
Great Britain 2007
color
3
minutes
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay
Wilhelm Sasnal
Cinematography
Wilhelm Sasnal
Editing Wilhelm
Sasnal
Production
Frieze Art Fair, London
Gemeinsam mit / Together with
MARFA
BRAZIL
MARFA
BRAZIL