The Magic Mountain

This film describes the adventures of Polish photographer and mountaineer Adam J. Winkler (1937–2002), who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan on the side of the mujahedin. The narrative, created using combined techniques involving actors and, for the most part, animation, is conceived as a dialogue between Winkler and his daughter Ania. Visually, the work is built up around Winkler's photographs and naivistic drawings, which are graphically modified in various styles: sometimes merely as sketches, at other times in eye-catching gouache or watercolour, elsewhere via artistically treated and animated sequences. The depiction of the hardship Winkler experienced in battle is dominated by tragic tones, nevertheless, the film is brightened with comic episodes, whose protagonists are the horses, goat and cat which accompanied the troops. Sound and image are complemented with a highly original score and the voices of leading French artists, thus we almost forget that we're not watching an acted film – such is the magic of a work in which the epic thread is interwoven with poetic imagery. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)