''The Big Animal'' ( pl, Duże zwierzę) is a 2000 Polish film directed by

Jerzy Stuhr Jerzy Oskar Stuhr (; born 18 April 1947) is a Polish film and theatre actor. He is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director and drama professor. He served as the Rector of th ...

from a screenplay by Krzysztof Kieślowski, based on a short story ''Wielbłąd'' (1995) by Kazimierz Orłoś.

Plot

Mr. Zygmunt Sawicki is a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

employee, who finds a

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

in his yard one day. He decides to take charge of it and he and his wife Marysia take care of it. However, problems arise for both his fellow town-dwellers and the local authorities.

Cast

as Zygmunt Sawicki *

Anna Dymna Anna Dymna (née Dziadyk ) (born 20 July 1951) is a Polish TV, film and theatre actress. Foundress of a charity foundation Mimo Wszystko (Against the Odds). Career Anna Dymna intended to study psychology before she decided to take an entrance ex ...

as Marysia Sawicka * Andrzej Franczyk as Bank Manager * Dominika Bednarczyk as Bank Clerk 1 * Błażej Wójcik as Bank Clerk 2 * Stanisław Banaś as Fire Chief * Krzysztof Gluchowski as Mayor * Feliks Szajnert as Drunkard

Production

The film was shot in the following locations:

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Tymbark Tymbark is a village in southern Poland, some 80 km south-east of Kraków, population 2,400 (2004 data). It lies approximately west of Limanowa and south-east of the regional capital Kraków. Tymbark was granted city rights in 1357 by Ki ...

Myślenice Myślenice is a town in southern Poland, situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Kraków Voivodeship (1975–1998). Population: 20,261 (2007). The town is divided into six districts. One of them, Zarabie, is a popula ...

Rabka Rabka may refer to the following places: * Rabka, Tibet, a village in China * Rabka-Zdrój Rabka-Zdrój (, in Goral dialects: ''Robka'', colloquially: ''Rabka'') is a spa town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. It is located between Kraków an ...

Awards

On 8 July 2000, the film was first released at the

35th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The 35th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took place from 5 to 15 July 2000. The Crystal Globe was won by ''Me You Them'', a Brazilian drama film directed by Andrucha Waddington. The second prize, the Special Jury Prize was won ex aequo ...

, where it won the Special Jury Prize, in tie with ''

Peppermint Candy ''Peppermint Candy'' () is a 1999 South Korean drama film by Lee Chang-dong, his second. The film opens with the implied suicide of the protagonist and uses reverse chronology to depict some of the key events of the past 20 years of his life tha ...

''. Release Info on IMDb
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Home media

After distributing 35mm prints to theaters, Milestone Films released the film on DVD in 2003.

Festivals

* AFI Fest 2000: The

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

Los Angeles International Film Festival LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

(International Competition) October 19–26, 2000. *

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become ...

(in competition) July 5–15, 2000. *

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

(Cinema Europa) November 1–16, 2000. * San Francisco International Film Festival April 19 - May 3, 2001. * Sydney Film Festival June 8–22, 2001.

References

External links

* *
''Big Animal''
at Milestone Films {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Animal 2000 films Polish drama films 2000s Polish-language films Films about camels Films shot in Poland Films with screenplays by Krzysztof Kieślowski