Madison Polish Film Festival 2010: Lullaby (Kołysanka)

The second and unfortunately last film I saw at this year's Polish Film Festival here in Madison was Juliusz Machulski's Lullaby (Kołysanka). Like War of Love, it starred Robert Więckiewicz. Here he is Michał, the head of the Makarewicz family who just happen to be vampires who merely seeking a home. He and his wife Bożena are parents to four small children with another on the way. Living with them is Michał's father. The family arrives at a farm one night which is occupied by a lone man who earns his living by making ceramics. The next thing we know it is the following day and our vampires are the new residents.

One by one people come to the house - a social worker, a postman, a priest and his acolyte, a German investor and his translator – and one by one these people disappear. Even a reporter and her cameraman sent out to the area to investigate the previous disappearances go missing. The local constabulary takes up the case but they're a bit on the Mayberry side of things. The police chief is an older gentleman who has a large model of the area populated by handmade figures of those missing. His female officer is a bit bumbling while the other officer, a man, is a real no-nonsense fellow.

While it all sounds like a typical horror film, Lullaby is a comedy. The family may be vampires but Michał has all the same problems as head of a household that we non-vampires do. His wife wants to move to the city and start a new life there. His eldest son doesn't look much like his father and so he falls into a depression thinking he's adopted. And there's the youngest who screams and cries unless the feet of the priest are available for getting a good drink of blood from. You see, all the victims are trapped in a root cellar their feet exposed so that the veins can be tapped.

Lullaby begins with some ominous overtones but it isn't long before the fact that it's a comedy is revealed. It's all a rather light-hearted affair. The authority figures are ruthlessly poked fun at, not unlike The Simpsons, and Michał is a fairly archetypal father on the hen-pecked side with a great dry sense of humor. Michał Lorenc's score is really fantastic with its gothic overtones rubbing elbows with classical and folk. You will think the music was by Danny Elfman.

Hopefully this will get a DVD release here in the States because I'd really like to see it again.