From the directors of Loving Vincent (2017) comes this ravishingly beautiful adaptation of the novel by Polish Nobel laureate Władisław Reymont (1867–1925), a book still taught in the author’s homeland. Animated in a style drawing on contemporaneous Polish art, it focuses on the beautiful Jagna (Kamila Urzedowska), a member of a close-knit community in a rural Polish village where tradition is paramount. Object of both envy and desire, rumours spread about her promiscuity, even as she does in fact risk everything by engaging in an illicit romance with the married son of the area’s richest farmer, who himself has his eye on her as a possible bride.

Followed by a Q&A with co-director Hugh Welchman.

This is a special Kinopolis opening night preview screening. The Peasants opens at the IFI from Friday, December 8th.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

Screening as part of Kinopolis Polish Film Festival 2023, December 7th – 10th.