BAMcinématek: Szamanka (The Shaman)

Part of the BAMcinématek series Hysterical Excess: Discovering Andrzej Zulawski

Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 6:50, 9:15pm

Directed by Andrzej Zulawski
With Iwona Petry, Bogusław Linda

(1996) 100min, 35mm

Anthropology professor Michal (Linda) meets a nameless student (Petry), ostensibly a pizza maker extraordinaire who’s referred to simply as “the Italian.” His escalating obsession with the literally feral young woman (at various points she eats cat food and slathers herself in raw meat) is matched only by his fascination with the body of a perfectly preserved 3,000-year-old shaman. Audacious, mystical, deranged (even by Zulawski’s standards), and sexually explicit enough to rival In the Realm of the Senses, The Shaman culminates in an apocalyptic, brain-munching finale. 

Subtitles to be projected live in a director-approved English translation courtesy of Mondo Vision. For more info please visit mondo-vision.com