MŁyn I krzyŻ

This unusual experiment attempts and achieves the seemingly impossible: the cinematic adaptation of a painting. The setting is Central Europe during the Age of Enlightenment: Protestantism is attracting ever more followers, a novel understanding of God and the world emerges. However the Spanish, during the sixteenth century the Catholic rules of Flanders, suppress the faith with a vengeance. Inspired by the novel of the American art historian Michael Francis Gibson, which transfers the Passion to Flanders in the year 1564, the Polish director, poet and painter Lech Majewski creates a visual masterpiece. 

The basis for his multifaceted tale is Pieter Bruegel’s 1564 large scale painting “The Way to Calvary”. The lives of a dozen of the five hundred characters depicted in the painting are elaborated upon and fused together into an authentic genre picture of the sixteenth century. One of these individuals is the soon-to-be-executed prophet and his grieving mother Maria. Another is the seemingly indifferent miller, who keeps guard from his mill. According to Bruegel every scene of the film resembles a painting; every gesture and tone carries a specific meaning. An associative, almost dialogue-free adventure, cast magnificently with Charlotte Rampling, Rutger Hauer and Michael York.