The film “Villagers” painted in Lithuania is already in the country’s cinemas Culture

The directors tell regarding the creation of the impressive work, to which Lithuanian artists also contributed with their masterful touches. Why hand-paint film in the age of artificial intelligence? What attracted them to Nobel laureate Władysław Reymont’s book “The Villagers”? And have we really changed since the 19th century?

5 years ago, the work of these directors “Your Vincent” was nominated for an Oscar and it entered the history of cinema as the first feature-length animated film. Even then, there was talk regarding the complexity of Vincent van Gogh’s drawing, but the new work “The Villagers”, according to Hugh Welchman, was three times more complicated.

Frame by frame – that is, painting by painting – it was painted in a realistic manner and, according to H. Welchman, not even all the best artists who worked on the previous work were able to accept the challenge of “Villagers”. It can be said that two films were made – in the beginning, everything was filmed, and then it all lay down in several tens of thousands of pictures, which became an impressive film.

Directors are constantly asked why they need to paint a film by hand in the age of artificial intelligence? H. Welchman smiles that he would have liked to create with artificial intelligence if only he might do it. “Artificial intelligence can be very good at creating music because there is a huge database of music tracks on the internet that it can draw on. He can even copy an oil painting quite well.

VIDEO: VILLAGERS trailer. In cinemas from March 28.

But everything changes when there is movement – artificial intelligence becomes too predictable, too artificial compared to human strokes, changes in light, etc. He might be able to learn it if there were more oil painting animations out there, but there aren’t any more – there’s only The Villagers.”

Based on the Nobel Prize laureate’s book

The story takes the viewer to the 19th century. the Polish village of the end of the 19th century, where gossip, envy, endless disagreements are the focus, all united by pride in their land, devotion to traditions and deep-rooted patriarchy. At the center of intrigue and conflicting desires is a young woman, Jagna, who tries to choose her own path in this environment. Director DK Welchman says that it was Jagna’s character in W. Reymont’s novel The Villagers that became the reason to tell this story in the film.

“I was struck by how beautifully Reymont described the village, the seasons, the beauty of the nature surrounding the peasants. But it was Jagna that became the reason that drew me to film it. As a woman, I too have been unfairly shamed many times in my life. So I identified with Jagna, I sympathized with her a lot.

In the beginning, everyone envies her and doesn’t understand her, then they treat her badly, shame her and finally reject her – for being beautiful, dreamy, artistic, passionate, and most of all for questioning the patriarchy, which is also supported by the church. She was like shouting at me. This film is my answer to that call,” says DK Welchman.

H. Welchman adds – no matter how much we would like to feel more sophisticated in the 21st century, there are still things that have not changed since the 19th century. “For example, in Toronto, the USA, and Britain, people of Indian origin kept coming up to talk to me following the screenings of the film, they told their stories or their friends’ stories – similar challenges in families still exist in many parts of the world.

Also, many young women still face mobbing, only it has moved to the Internet – experiencing anonymous hatred, jealousy driving people into depression, causing great anxiety and even suicidal thoughts. The film shows conflicts, gender inequality, internalized patriarchy, passions, jealousies, all of which are still human and therefore very relatable. “

Wild celebrations with dances and songs

“Villagers” is a joy not only for the eyes, but also for the ears: the impressive visual work is perfectly complemented by the music. “We were inspired by the celebrations described in the book and the wedding of Borina and Jagna, where the guests drank and danced for three days. These people live a complicated life, work incredibly hard, but also know how to celebrate the cycle of life. They really like to dance.

We should all dance more! Sometimes the music has to do the talking for the characters when they don’t get eloquent enough or don’t feel empowered. So the close cooperation with the composer Łukasz “LUC” Rostkowski was very important”, reveals DK Welchman.

The final song of the film “End of Summer” was re-sung by the famous Georgian and British singer Katie Melua following the release of the film in English, the soundtrack of the film has already gone platinum in Poland, and special music concerts of the film “The Villagers” are even being held in the country.

“For the soundtrack, of course, we were inspired by traditional Polish folk music. Throughout the world, folklore has many elements of repetition, which creates an atmosphere that encourages you to dance until the morning, just like modern house or trance music. However, we were more interested not in popular music, but in deeper folk music that takes us further back in time.

In Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany and other regions, deep-historical explorations of the tribal past are popular, and in this case I was interested in the Slavic mysticism of this region. Therefore, we were most interested in such folklore, which sounded very long ago”, says H. Welchmanas.