Dzien swira

I'm not Polish, but I had the pleasure of visiting most of the country on multiple occasions, I studied there, I dated there. To all the critics who despise the use of profanity, the vulgar approaches of the protagonist, or the economical background, I invite them to take a closer look around Poland. If the described situations are unrealistic, then this is only half true. There are much worse and true facts that are either not mentioned or unexplored in this movie, like the feeling of unsafety, the neediness for capitalism and the exploitation hereof, and the careless and emotionless attitude of the young (men).

Apart from that, this movie nails it. I saw it during a screening in my classes on Polish culture (braught by Polish teachers). I laughed out loud after the first words were uttered when the main character woke up. How sad, but how true his words were. Of course this is satire. What happens here to one person could at most be the combination of a hundred people involved. Still, the pain is real. It's not an easy life out there if you're a local. Everyday is a struggle, the English language is an unrealistic necessity, money is a key word.

Keep an open mind when you watch this one. Seek out the good parts (I enjoyed all the dog references, since I'm not a big dog fan), and know that politically, economically, and privately, this does represent a part of Poland. I love that country though, with all its flaws. It's just not always easy.

The movie gets a 10 from me. I haven't seen anything like it, and I've seen most.

The film does not consist only of flat humor as of vulgar speech and behave of the protagonist but has a very deep social critic (as for example the popping up of 3rd world scenes or showing how neighbors treat each other or in general how people talk to each other). The protagonist appears as a freak but compared to the rest of the world he is the most normal one, it is the behave of the society which leads him to his abnormality. An other strong critical emphasis is put on the consume-society of our world. TV advertisements are shown totally ridiculously and the products they advertise are totally non-sense. It may appear quite funny, but if we think about this fact it is shown like it is in reality. Profit and consume dominate about rationality and humanity. It is one of the best movies I've seen in the last year, the humor is not typical American slapstick or "Al Bundy -like" but the vulgar talking of the protagonist calms the pathetic style and makes it easier to watch and also very funny. A+!!!

DAY OF THE WACKO, directed by Marek Koterski, is a rather droll comedy about the daily life of an eccentric and depressed Polish high-school teacher. He's angry, lonely, underpaid, unappreciated, and can envision no end to his predicament. Imagine a film in which the ambient spirit of Eleanor Rigby is reconfigured as a very frustrated Polish, middle-aged nerd, and you come close to the tone of this dark farce. There are some scenes which are very funny, and others are just plain odd. Yet, overall, the film is worth a look. When the hero visits the beach to relax and unwind, he meets some of the craziest and bizarre characters that one could imagine. A few of these scenes are flat-out hysterical. Bonus Features are all in Polish without sub-titles.

Dzien Swira ( Day of the freak) is Koterski's latest addition to an already impressive portfolio. Like his other semi-autobiographical move titled Nic Smiesznego ( nothing funny), Dzien Swira records the inner dialogue & the prose of a single day in the life of Adam Miauczynski, a character based on M. Koterski. Miauczynski, like Koterski, is an compulsive-obsessive, excentric, bitter & disillusioned individual caught in Poland's post communist reality, a reality as Ill suited to him as the communist one was. One of the reasons why Koterski's work is either loved or intensly disliked by Poles, is the painfully acurate description of polish hell, made all the more vivid by his insistance on showing the trivial & at the same time essential moments of daily life in excruciating detail. life is all the more hell when the damned are aware that life could be different, and this is what makes Miauczynski's suffering all the more real. A number of the scenes are classics, unequalled by any of Koterski's contemporaries, especially the scenes depicting Miauczynski's relationship with his son, the senate, train toilet and street demonstration scenes.

It is unfortuante for the western viewer that the context & language of the film make it very difficult to translate adequatly, refering as it does to polish classical literature, contemporary culture and nigh-untranslatable street slang, the contrast being all the more vivid, since Miauczynski is a Polish literature lecturer obsessed with what he percieves to be the decay of the language he loves.

If I were to compare Koterski to any western director, it would be to Britain's Mike Leigh. An insane Mike leigh with an infectious sense of humour & a penchant for social commentary.

All in all, This is Koterski's finest work to date, perhaps the finest Polish film in the last 5 years. My rating is a solid 8/10

I'm not sure what some get so uptight about nitpicking some small details and missing the whole big picture and the wonderfull moments of the film. I also left Poland as a child in 1979 and one thing I had to live through is bad Hollywood films:P This movie can be crude, but why shouldnt it be. If your life turned out like this you would be extremely unhappy and likelly using rather colorfull words when you reached the boiling point as the main character has. The film is simply art, it had no typical pre-fabricated way of telling the story, it was simply a day in life of an angry man with a life time of regrets and love that he yearned for. It also had some critisisms of Poles in general and I have to agree, sometimes there was to many "me me me" when I have visited insted of "we". I think the prayer at the end summoned it up. Most of all it is a satire, it is taken to extreme in places, thats what satires do, so dont take this to literally, just enjoy and try to understand that it is not you regular moron proof hollywood movie where everything is laid out in front of you and overexplained so the dimmer amongst us dont ask to many questions. To me its one of the best films I have seen in the last ten years, a pleasant surprise.