Neighborhooders

After two decades of silence a feature film by Grzegorz Królikiewicz – a rebellious and controversial artist, master of the avant-garde and independent cinema, author of shocking, though unique masterpieces like “Through and through” and “The case of Bronek Pekosiński”.

An adaptation of novels by Adrian Markowski.

Hypnotizing, experimental cinematography by DoP Krzysztof Ptak whose camera literally peeks into one apartment after another allowing the viewer a look into people’s lives.

The film is a story about people who have been pushed to the margins of society. They paid a high price for free, capitalist Poland and have received nothing in return. Their world is a mix of the worst elements of the past and the present.

A series of episodes presenting scenes from the lives of the residents of „famułs” - residential buildings from the XIXth century built for Łódź factory workers. Today they are home only for those who have no other place to go. These people live outside of time and reality, creating their own rituals, rules and norms:  a carp is bought for Easter, cars drive backwards, there’s a woman with two hearts, a wife asks her husband to beat her and a priest played by famous body builder Mariusz Pudzianowski – these are just a few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle created by Królikiewicz.

Subsequent episodes are played to the rhythm of ballads sung by Marek Dyjak.

The film divided critics and audiences: some called it a masterpiece, others a fiasco. “Neighborhooders” is film oxymoron: social criticism masked by the surreal, moving truth presented in a dream fantasy. In this film Królikiewicz achieved his aim of “overruling this world’s reality to make people more real” to the fullest.