Seksmisja
Poland,
1983, 128 min
Shown in 1985
CREDITS
- dir
-
Juliusz Machulski
- scr
-
Juliusz Machulski, Jolanta Hartwig, Pawel Hajny
- cast
-
Jerzy Stuhr
-
COMMENTS
Juliusz Machulski in person.
Sex Mission is guaranteed to give grave offense to everyone not sophisticated enough to perceive Juliusz Machulski’s intentions. While masquerading as a wild, ribald and flagrantly chauvinist sex comedy set in the 21st century, the film is an acute allegory of tyranny and political deception. Machulski imagines a situation in which people are judged by gender, as in some societies they might be judged by political conviction. His two heroes are guinea pigs in a hibernation experiment. Mislaid, they are only revived 50 years later, after a nuclear holocaust and a catastrophe that destroyed all male genes. The only men in a self-reproductive, all-female society, their old chauvinist instincts come into absurd confrontation with the new feminists. It would be a shame to reveal the denouement, an outrageous metaphor for political leaders who live by a different code than those they preach (Poland uprooted a lot of them in 1980.) The youngest Polish feature director, Machulski amply demonstrates that Polish films and Polish skepticism have survived martial law.
—David Robinson, London Film Festival
FACTOID #92
In 1997, the 40 th anniversary of the Festival, four films shared the spotlight for opening night: Bliss, Love Valour! Compassion, Wake Up Love and When the Cat’s Away.
