Description

1. Any alteration in the structure or function of an organism by which it becomes better fitted to survive.
2. The process of change by which an organism becomes better suited to its environment and more resistant to outer stress.
3. The ability of eyesight to adjust to seeing in the dark.

Selected Awards

• ► GRAND PRIX, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
  Łodzią po Wiśle (Poland)
• ► BEST SHORT FILM
  Tirana Int. Film Festival (Albania)
• ► BEST SHORT FILM
  Int. Film Festival Bratislava (Slovakia)

Critics & Reviews

ELEONORA DEGRASSI (FILM CRITIC)
“THE DRAMA OF THE AFTERWARDS”
A larval state in which an organism curls up upon itself feels the taste of pain, and the weight of change; after that comes a moment though when the individual shakes off this mantle and opens its eyes. The new light is unbearable at first, but it’s necessary to begin to breathe again. One has to adapt to go beyond death, but that’s not always possible, as in Bartosz Kruhlik’s Adaptacja, shown in competition at the Cervignano Film Festival. You can’t come to terms with loss, and the wounds are reopened infinitely so that the drama is eternally re-experienced. From the beginning, there is a sense of absence, of a lack which is impossible to explain but sharp and tormenting, such as that of someone who, having lost a limb, still feels its presence, but also, aware of the „damage”, perceives its painful absence. That is what Adaptacja is about, and the title acts as a contrast: there will be no adaptation for the family. Young Polish filmmaker’s short chases the excruciating and unbearable torture of two parents and a brother who lost their relative. At the beginning we find ourselves in an aseptic void, so unmanageable that it swallows everything, in which three bodies move, so lacerated by mourning, that – paradoxically – they are almost impenetrable. Later the suspense arises, and, like cancer cells, ones infecting the others in an unavoidable crescendo, collisions are so violent to tear the flesh and hurt the soul, reliving that cursed day. Three people, shredded to pieces, wander on earth just to suffer, even more, to bring more pain to each other, tell the most terrible words, as if their sole end was to purge every image. A quilt of darkness and punishment has fallen onto this family, and now intimacy, love, support are foreign: the images of the father simulating a crazy ride towards a wall to recreate the dynamics of the accident and that of the survivor reproaching the parents for always preferring his brother, are powerful. Adaptacja writes an eternal song of death, whose maids are anger and guilt: the anger of parents who can’t find peace not only due to one son’s death, but also in front of the other’s dismay: terrible the moment when the survivor pretends to bear the name of the dead – like an animal in a cage made out of remorse and punishment, the sense of guilt of a brother who cannot bear still being alive. In an earthly way, Bartosz Kruhlik takes the audience into a tunnel with no end, making human and real a concept dear to biology and psychology; with expressive, dry and tragic force, highlighting the complexity of the execution.

♦

JURY STATEMENT / RIVER FILM FESTIVAL
The film ADAPTATION is awarded as the best film in the category of Graduation Films for its rich and cinematic way of storytelling through deft handling of actors, screenplay writing, camera and sound works all woven together. The film follows a gruesome family tragedy in close circumspection that goes far beyond the incident to reach an understanding of individuals who must live on.