Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #80. Dorota Kobiela’s The Peasants

The Peasants

Best known for 2017’s Loving Vincent (co-directed with Hugh Welchman), Polish filmmaker Dorota Kobiela couldn’t have asked for a better entry onto the feature film scene with nominations at prestige award events (Oscars and the Golden Globe) plus a premiere at Telluride. She moved into her first feature solo venture with co-scribes/producers Welchman and Sean Bobbitt (not to be confused with the cinematographer) sometime in 2020 with the live-action portions being filmed before the hand-painted on canvas technique was assigned to an army of painters. The Peasants has already gathered some sales from Euro territories. Set at the end of the 19th century, this tells a story of love and life in a small community, where rules and traditions dictate everyone’s role.

Gist: This is the tragic story of a peasant girl 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 of the villagers and has to fight to preserve her independence.

Release Date/Prediction: Animated films with this degree of complexity are a tough nut to predict — the painstaking workload could push the films release well into overtime. We’re thinking Berlin might be a great Euro-fest to premiere at and launch further international sales.