Vision Quest

***This article originally appeared in the February ’21 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 307)***

Loss Inspires Art

An uncommon review at MoMA gave him the consolation to utilize his folks as a beginning stage for the film. “I needed to gather up the mental fortitude and consider a piece of my life and accommodate,” he notes. “I realized that I could assemble my ‘enchantment box,’ resurrect them and compensate for my errors. At that point, a year into making the film, I lost my dearest companion and the main man in my life, Tadeusz Nalepa, whose music is the soundtrack of the film. He joined the place that is known for apparitions in my film. The film was made for my mother, who upheld me so much, yet in addition for Tadeusz, who was my incredible companion. I am exceptionally satisfied that I had the option to utilize Tadeusz’s music in the film since he didn’t get any airplay in Poland during his life, yet is currently recognized for his craft. The purpose of making the film was to meet my mother, my father, and Tadeusz once more, to have a fair discussion and reveal to them all that I love them.”

Thinking about his youth, Wilczyński says he generally cherished drawing as a little youngster. A most loved subject was Polish knights battling with Teutonic Order cavaliers. “I really got my first ‘Fs’ in school for my drawings,” he concedes. “At the point when I was seven, I used to spend occasions in the field with my mom, and I saw that the male ponies had enormous creeps. Along these lines, when I drew the most renowned knight, Zawisza Czarny, on top of a pony, I incorporated an immense wiener. My mother was called to class hence and I was very near getting removed. Fortunately, she figured out how to work the head out of it.”

Finding a New World

All things considered, Wilczyński continued drawing and he wound up examining painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź under the extraordinary painter Stanisław Fijałkowski. After graduation, he set out on his own promising work of art profession. He drew numerous photos for a festival of the acclaimed artist and ambassador Czeslaw Milosz’s assortment Road-side Dog for Polish TV. “After I saw my drawings highlighted in the program, I went insane,” he says. “I chose to leave my work of art vocation, cross out all that had occurred previously, and make the photos wake up. I didn’t have the foggiest idea how to do it, yet I settled on one urgent choice: I could never take a gander at what different illustrators are doing or read books to get familiar with the innovation. My objective was to encounter it all alone, in my own particular manner. At 35, I was starting another experience — and like a youngster, I was finding the world from the very fundamentals. I felt like Columbus and had no clue about where I would sail to!”

The craftsman chose to do all the foundations for Kill It and Leave This Town by hand. “The way toward establishing the conditions was somewhat similar to that of the film: I included an ever-increasing number of components of the story to at last get 90 minutes. The drawings arose along these lines — I drew an image on a piece of paper, however, I came up short on some space, so I stuck it along with another bit of paper. At that point, I felt like there wasn’t sufficient space, so I connected another image, and that is the way it started to develop. You can see every one of these joints between bits of paper in the film. I needed to uncover this since it’s an exceptionally natural and characteristic matter of paper, of surface, and some wrinkling. A few pictures acted similarly — as the film was really taking shape for a very long time, a portion of the main drawings began to look more pale, the ink changed in shade, and everything began carrying on with its own life.”

The Personal Is Universal

The director is very satisfied that this immensely close to homework has been getting positive audits at celebrations around the globe. “It is remunerating to hear others saying that they will change their mentality toward their friends and family in the wake of watching the film,” he says. “Yet, honestly, I had no assumptions from crowds at all. I made the film for myself, my folks, and my companion. I didn’t feel that I was making a film that could help somebody, that may give them something. I was somewhat unfortunate that the film would not be perceived outside of Poland, yet in addition, I trusted that the crowd might want it.”

He says he additionally felt that the film would just engage those more than 35, yet after a screening of the film in Lima, Peru, three youngsters disclosed to him that they were profoundly influenced by it. “They advised me, ‘What are you in any event, saying? Here in Peru, we’ve had a lockdown for a quarter of a year. All of us have lost a friend or family member to COVID. Try not to state the film is for a more established crowd since we’re in our 20s and we can consummately get it.’ It may be that this film, particularly as of now, has an extra effect.”

The chief likewise was very contacted when a youthful film pundit in Poland commended his film and stated, “Unexpectedly I am apprehensive I may lose somebody near me — my grandparents. There’s a pandemic, I am stressed over them, so I call each day to check in the event that they’re alright. Slaughter It and Leave This Town is a remedy to my nervousness and dread.” Wilczyński finishes up, “I may have expected that the film would be perceived in Poland, however, I never felt that it would be comprehensible outside of my nation. These many audits and the honors we got came as a shock to me. What was the most amazing and significant is the gathering of the film. Despite the fact that it’s a craftsmanship film, a sort of story dependent on my feelings, not a narrative or a normal element, it can, in any case, resound with individuals and make them somewhat better. I think that its extraordinary that some older individuals’ lives may likewise become more splendid gratitude to it.”

Kill It and Leave This Town won a Jury Distinction at Annecy and Best Animated Feature at Ottawa in 2020. The film will screen as part of the Vidiots Foundation Virtual Screening series on Feb. 3 and MoMA’s Contenders screening series on Feb. 11-16. The film is distributed by Outsider Pictures and will expand in the first quarter of 2021.