<This text was originally pubished in Polish 15th April 2024>
During the last Gdynia Film Festival (in September 2023), I did not trust my own intuition enough and, as a result, I missed many important and interesting films. But I try to compensate for these losses and make up for them if the opportunity arises.
„Ultima Thule”, directed by Klaudiusz Chrostowski, is one of the films I „missed” at that festival – it is not always easy to fit one’s own schedule into the festival calendar.
I also admit that I was more focused on the Main Competition and the Shorts, and „Ultima Thule” entered the Microbudget Film Competition – and won in that category! When this film entered into cinemas in February 2024 I wanted to catch up and see it, but the projection times at the arthouse cinema (!) weren’t conductive – how are the same screening hours all week, in the middle of the day, supposed to attract audiences to films that have real value? However, one cannot escape fate. Suddenly, 2 months after its premiere, within the programme „Accessible Culture” in Helios cinemas, „Ultima Thule” appeared in the Thursday repertoire.
The film tells the story of Bartek (played by the excellent Jakub Gierszał), 30-years-old who travels to the most desolate island of Shetland – Foula – with only a backpack. It is a really small island, only 13 km², located in the north-east of Scotland, with only about 30 habitants. And sheep and other animals. But it’s just the kind of place the protagonist needs to to think about life,sort out the past in his head and decide what to do next. When Bartek arrives on the island, he meets Magnus, its inhabitant, who offers him a place to sleep for an indefinite period of time in exchange for his help with the daily duties. From then on, the protagonist of „Ultima Thule” spends his days painting the house, working in the peat bog or taking care of a flock of sheep. Step by step we learn the details of his life and what he wanted to escape from before he reached Shetland.
It all proves that the nature is irreplaceable in a process of trying to understand oneself. And the animals play like professional actors in this film and steal the hearts of the audience in the cinema. The amazingly rendered beauty of nature makes me yearn to be on the island of Foula and air my head in such amazing natural settings (and I’m person who doesn’t like cold and has in the drawer 7 pairs of gloves of different thicknesses in his drawer for various weather conditions).
After leaving the cinema, I realised that I really needed this film – one simply about life, without the unnecessary martyrology that often appears in Polish cinema. If you have the opportunity, I sincerely recommend this film – because of the screenplay, the production and the artistic creation of Jakub Gierszał, which is different from what we have known so far from other films, such as „Doppelgänger. The Double” (in Polish: „Doppelgänger. Sobowtór”, or „White courage” (in Polish: „Biała odwaga”).
„Ultima Thule” is Klaudiusz Chrostowski’s feature film debut, but I hope to see another film directed by him soon.
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