Directed by: Anca Damian
Rating: ★★★★☆
“The former prison director explained to me that this issue was not important enough to deserve my attention,” said Krakow prison administrator Zygmunt Lizak to local daily Gazeta Krakowska. Polish and Romanian producers have come together in this film to bluntly explain what was important enough to deserve his attention – the death of Claudiu Crulic. Droga na drugą stronę (Crulic – The Path to Beyond) recounts the deadly hunger strike undertaken by a 33-year-old Romanian citizen wrongfully accused of theft in Krakow while travelling by bus to Italy.
Romanian cinéaste Anca Damian proves that animated documentaries should be regarded as a genre in their own right. From a technical point of view, Damian’s feature has more in common with the graphic journalism of Lebanese-Swiss cartoonist Chappatte than the genre’s landmark Waltz with Bashir (2008) directed by Ari Folman. Unlike Folman’s work, which is drawn, Damian has integrated images of real objects into the narrative using decoupage, drawing and collage to boost the distancing effect.
Dipped in a peculiar form of black humour à la Lucian Pintilie, which is indeed more Romanian than Polish, Crulic – The Path to Beyond provokes the viewer with a set of anguished questions about Crulic’s ordeal. As in Waltz with Bashir, the director eventually jolts the viewer back to reality with the abrupt insertion of real footage in the epilogue. Damian’s second full-length feature has, deservedly, been cherished across Europe.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on May 19, 2012