Kill It and Leave This Town

This nightmarish, haunting and beautifully poetic animation is a deeply personal tale from self-taught animator Mariusz Wilczyński that was 15 years in the making.

Using a combination of techniques, significantly drawing on paper, the story unfolds as a recollection of lives known, lost and held dear. In a homage to Wilczyński’s home city of Łódź, it opens with a man puffing on a cigarette as the chimneys of the industrial town belch their smoke. Guided by the director’s memories we enter an often nightmarish tone poem, where people are variously at odds with their environment and appearances can be deceptive. A score by renowned Polish composer Tadeusz Nalepa draws us further into the dystopian vision. Watch out for Andrzej Wajda as the Warsaw Insurgent on the train.

Initially conceived as a short, this debut feature by acclaimed self taught animator Mariusz Wilczyński was 15 years in development. Emerging onto the festival circuit last year it won major prizes at the Viennale, Ottawa and Annecy as well as in Poland. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw also selected it as one of his 'should have been a contender' animations for the Oscars 2021.