Day of the Wacko (2002)
Directed by Marek Koterski
Genres - Comedy |
Sub-Genres - Tragi-comedy |
Run Time - 105 min. |
Countries - Poland |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Josh Ralske
Adam Miauczynski (Marek Kondrat) is a middle-aged literature professor, divorced, with a teenage son. Writer/director Marek Koterski's dark comedy Day of the Wacko follows Adam over the course of a long, typically unpleasant day as he deals with his noisy neighbors, his overbearing mother (Janina Traczykówna), his apathetic son (Michal Koterski), his bitchy ex-wife (Joanna Sienkiewicz), his rudely flatulent students, and, most debilitating of all, his own obsessive-compulsive behavior, and his immobilizing despair over the state of his life and the world around him. All the while, he reminisces about the woman he calls his great lost love, Ela (Monika Donner-Trelinska), and fantasizes about seeing her again. Reaching a fever pitch of depressed paranoia, Adam decides to travel to take a train to the beach to find some peace. After a harrowing trip, during which he's forced to share a compartment with a motley assortment of obnoxious fools, he arrives at the sea and lies out in the sand, hoping for a moment's tranquility as he continues his ongoing internal monologue, analyzing the failures of his life and his world. Day of the Wacko was nominated for a slew of Polish Film Awards, and won Best Actor (Kondrat) and Best Screenplay (Koterski). It was also shown at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival, and was released straight-to-video in the U.S.
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Keywords
beach, compulsion, neurotic, old-flame, teacher