Another New US Trailer for ‘The Peasants’ Hand-Painted Polish Film

Another New US Trailer for ‘The Peasants’ Hand-Painted Polish Film

by Alex Billington
January 4, 2024
Source: YouTube

“God did not create you to be poor!” Sony Classics has revealed an official US trailer for the hand-painted film The Peasants, an animated story of jealous men and angry villagers. They have been working on this for years, painting every single frame by hand to get it looking perfect. The film tells a heartbreaking story about an early 20th Polish peasant woman who creates havoc when she is forced to marry an older rich man. The epic classic novel of Wladyslaw Reymont has been brought to life using the popular realist and pre-impressionist paintings from the 19th Century, with an emphasis on the Young Poland Movement and the works of such artists as Józef Chełmoński, Ferdynand Ruszczyc and Julian Fałat. It’s a follow-up to the first hand-painted film Loving Vincent, which was about Vincent Van Gogh. Every last shot is painted by artists, resulting in thousands of paintings at the end of production. The Peasants stars Kamila Urzedowska as Jagna, with Robert Gulaczyk & Mirosław Baka. It first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and I recently watched it at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia. It’s worth seeing in theaters.

Here’s the official US trailer for DK Welchman & Hugh Welchman’s The Peasants, direct from YouTube:

You can also find the original 2020 concept trailer for The Peasants here, or watch last year’s trailer here.

Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Wladyslaw Reymont, The Peasants tells the tragic story of a peasant girl named Jagna forced to marry a much older, wealthy farmer Boryna, despite her love for his son Antek. With time, Jagna becomes the object of envy and hate with the villagers and she must fight to preserve her independence. Set in the Polish countryside on the cusp of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the story’s dramatic turns tie into the changing seasons, hard labor in the fields, and the traditional local holidays. The Peasants is directed by Polish filmmaker DK Welchman (formerly Dorota Kobiela), director of the films The Flying Machine and Loving Vincent previously, with Hugh Welchman, also of Loving Vincent and a producer on other projects. The script is also by DK Welchman & Hugh Welchman; based on the famous novel “Chlopi” by Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont. The film first premiered at the 2023 Toronto and London Film Festivals last year. Sony Pictures Classics will now release The Peasants film in select US theaters (NY & LA only) starting on January 26th, 2024. With more theaters nationwide to follow later.

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