PRINCE IN A PASTRY SHOP
DIRECTED BY KATARZYNA AGOPSOWICZ
POLAND // 2020
16 MINS
This philosophical parable about a couple eating cakes in a cafe touches upon fundamental issues that are close to everyone - the elusiveness of happiness, the fact that we are not always able to perceive it.
Reflective Encounters
“A curious mix of philosophical ponderings and sight gags, Prince in a Pastry Shop stands out as a film that invites visual exploration from the viewer, populating many of its shots with minute details. Director Katarzyna Agopsowicz has created an elaborate world of graphite sketches come to life through a combination of full and rigged 2D animation approaches, seamlessly interwoven with occasional CG. Peppered with splashes of colour, the largely grayscale universe is centered around the titular Prince who, hung up on notions of the meaning of happiness, meets with his comparatively carefree companion over tea to put the world to rights.
Their surroundings perpetually morph around them in a manner that brings to mind Lewis Carroll, allowing for a rich diversity of animation approaches, sensibilities and scenarios that all manage to seamlessly blend into one another. Particularly impressive is the appealingly stylised and often quite complex character animation rendered with incredible detail that manages to coexist harmoniously alongside more simplistic approaches reminiscent of Walerian Borowczyk.
The back and forth between the two main characters lends the film an almost theatrical quality, as though it could have been adapted from a conceptually avant-garde stage play. Most importantly it succeeds in using animation not for its own sake but as a truly limitless medium.”
— Ben Mitchell
Filmmaker Bio
The scriptwriter and the director of animated films. A graduate of the Faculty of Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. In 2005, she graduated Animated Film Studies where she worked under the supervision of Professor Jerzy Kucia. For her diploma film "Tomorrow", she received, among others, the main prize at the Koszalin Festival of Film Debuts "Young and Film".
She has collaborated with many filmmakers in the production of films, including as director's assistant and animator on the film "Fugue for Cello, Trumpet and Landscape" by Jerzy Kucia. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the President of the City of Krakow and the Polish Filmmakers Association.
Member of the Polish Filmmakers Association and the International Association of Animated Film Makers ASIFA.