“Close Enough”: Images of the Failure of the 1990s’ Political Transformation in Poland as Exemplified by Władysław Pasikowski’s “Psy” [Pigs] and Andrzej Żuławski’s “Szamanka” [She-Shaman]

Abstract

This article problematizes the Polish cinema of the 1990s by analyzing it in terms of the aesthetic of failure. Of crucial importance for that interpretation is the postcolonial perspective. Seen from this perspective, Poland of the political transformation period appears a land of unfulfilled dreams of being-like-the-West. One of the spheres where this is visible is the Polish cinematography of that time.

Keywords

• failure
• Poland
• close enough
• cinema
• Andrzej Żuławski
• Władysław Pasikowski