Zmruz oczy

Mala is a ten year old Polish girl from a wealthy family who runs away from home to the farm of a former teacher, Jasiek, who is living a quiet country life up to the girl's arrival. Mom and dad show up a short time later, and they threaten and insult him, and accuse him of convincing their daughter to leave home. Mala is very strong willed and for some unexplained reason, just ended up on the farm.

Ola Proszynska and Zbigniew Zamachowski are both actors who are easy to watch, with a natural chemistry on screen. The major problem is a story which meanders without any reason whatsoever. The potential was there, but after a while the aimless script just left me bored and hoping for better material for Ola and Zbigniew.

'Squint your eyes' is a movie not only about a real friendship between a caretaker and a young girl but also between different characters in the movie.

It is set in contemporary Poland, in a rural area that has seen its better times. The main character, Jasiek is a burnt out teacher from big city. He is now a caretaker at a former soviet era co-op farm.

Many scenes refer to this post-communist era: the dilapidated police cruiser that gets stuck in mud; the old truck that should be in the museum but out of necessity is still used for transportation.

The rest of the plot deals with the question of what will happen to the girl and her former teacher.

This is a very slow moving film without any fast, shaky camera movements. You get to feel the passage of time and the heat of the summer. The colors are beautiful; they would have been even better had they used better equipment. On the other hand the low budget, forced the director to shoot all the scenes in one take. This turned out to be a blessing since every scene is well thought out.

The director, Andrzej Jakimowski just like Kieslowski takes great care of every detail. There is a scene, hard to believe at first, where the eagle flies away. It has at least two different meanings but what is amazing that something like that actually happened to the director's father.

If you like to see an uplifting, sometimes funny, sad and quirky movie and at the same time learn about the Einstein relativity theory (the scene on the bridge) you will not be disappointed.

I could not wait for this movie to end.

The camera work was great as was the location but the story just does not draw a viewer in. The characters are flat and draw no emotion from the viewer.

It leaves you wondering only when the end will come. The movie had potential that just was never fulfilled. The story could be interesting, but either something is lost in translation or it has been poorly executed. The plot develops poorly, the characters don't develop in a way to make you like, hate, or feel any other way about them. Overall it was quite dull, not fulfilling, and definitely not entertaining. Blah is the perfect description of it all.

A paradox: the "classical" plot is almost absent here, but still the movie draws attention from the first to the last minute. Why? Well, movies are about art of vision and sound and this film is a good proof of that. The alternative way to see the rush of the civilised world, noticing what is really important in life - these are not new topics, but here they are presented in a very elegant and touching manner. Superb actors and music add much to splendid photography and very good screenplay. All that would still be not enough, but what really makes this film unforgettable is humour. Altogether, we get a calming, but not boring, touching, but not too sweet and quite... wise film.

Squint Your Eyes (Zmruz oczy), Poland, 2003, d. Andrzej Jaminowski, 87 m. When Jasiak, a retired school teacher, decides to act as custodian of a deserted farm in the Polish countryside, he finds the easy life more than he bargained for. To begin with, the farm's owners neither want nor need a custodian. Then his solitude is broken by one of his former students, a young girl who's had it with her materialistic parents. And by some con artists, some cyclists, at least one self-proclaimed poet, the girl's parents, the farm's owners, and ultimately the police. So much for lazy-ing around in the hazy countryside. You might call Squint Your Eyes a provocative, philosophical comedy.—Nick Salerno