Such Miracles Do Happen (Takie cuda sie zdarzaja)
2023 · 14m · Poland
Directed by Barbara Rupik
Genres: animation, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, dark, surreal, whimsical
Religious statues across a Polish village silently come to life and walk away from their shrines in a slow, inexplicable procession. A girl born without bones — unable to move on her own — watches with pure wonder and is the only one able to make contact with a departing figure.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Plasticine-and-lace stop-motion where characters seem to be melting, religious statues walking away from shrines, solo auteur Barbara Rupik doing everything herself — fourteen minutes of properly weird Polish vision. Yes.
Rupik handling every department herself — script, plasticine and lace animation, cinematography, sound, score — produces precisely the unified vision a vision of religious statues silently walking away requires. The boneless-girl-as-only-witness conceit is properly Tarkovskian. Fourteen minutes; a singular hand.
14-minute Lodz Film School plasticine-and-lace stop-motion where Barbara Rupik handles script, animation, cinematography, edit, sound design, and score herself — single-author craft commitment at the molecular level, with characters perpetually on the verge of melting. The boneless-girl-watching-statues-walk imagery is haunting on premise alone.
Reviews
The film uses outstanding technique of a kind of liquid stop-motion animation, which is also irreplaceable and deeply connected to its theme.
An utterly original vision, exuding a mystical and sacred atmosphere reminiscent of Tarkovsky's work.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2023
- DOK Leipzig 2023, Golden Dove for Best Animated Short Film
- Krakow Film Festival 2023