Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Country: Poland
Award: none
Movement: none
The Shaman is a compelling cinematic collaboration between Poland, France, and Switzerland, directed by the acclaimed Andrzej Żuławski, based on a script penned by Manuela Gretkowska. This film incited quite a stir within Poland upon its premiere, and centralizes on the consuming bond between a scholarly anthropology professor and a mysterious young woman, referred to only as the “Italian”. The film’s title, “Szamanka”, is the feminine Polish equivalent of “shaman”. The narrative unravels around the character of Michal, an anthropology professor whose life begins to be dictated by two potent obsessions as the plot advances. One is his fixation with the perfectly preserved mummified remains of a 3,000-year-old Shaman that he, along with his team, has excavated from a marshland. The other is a mystifying female student he happens to encounter at the Krakow Railway Station.
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