Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 - 1939), also known as Witkacy, was a cultural icon in Poland before WWII. He was born in Warsaw and was reared at the family home in Zakopane. He was somewhat of a polymath and contributed to literature, philosophy, painting, photography and theater. He was also an inveterate prankster. Officially, he committed suicide in Eastern Poland after the country's invasion in September 1939. In the postwar period, his remains were moved to Zakopane and given a solemn funeral by Poland's Ministry of Culture. However, this seemingly was another of Witkacy's pranks; in 1994 his remains were exhumed and genetic tests on the remaining bones showed that the body could not be his.
This movie proposes an explanation to the mystery of Witkacy's death/dissapearance. I did not find the story particularly compelling, but this may be due to the fact that knowledge of Witkacy is pretty much restricted to Poland and thus references to his life and work have little meaning for the non-Polish viewer. Jerzy Stuhr, playing Witkacy is often over the top and so are Maciej Stuhr and Ewa Blaszczyk, playing a student obsessed with Witkacy and Witkacy's lover Czeslawa. The overacting may be intentional, however, to create a theatrical, surreal background where Czeslawa's interaction with Witkacy may be real or just a product of her perturbed mind. Movie bears watching but does not add up to much.
