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Film

Non-Western Westerns

Friday, Apr 4, 2008

3 p.m.

Additional Info

Summer Love, Piotr Uklanski, 2006, 93 min.

The conceptual Polish artist Uklanski describes Summer Love, his debut film, as “the first Polish Western.” Shot in southern Poland with a Polish cast, the film explores the Western as a series of iconic figures, actions, and settings. The stranger comes to town, the barmaid is seduced, guns are fired, blood spurts and flows, the scaffold is built, and the wanted man appears (in the form of Val Kilmer) – but the classic Hollywood, or even spaghetti, Western is nowhere to be found. As Uklanski explains, Summer Love “is neither a parody, nor homage . . . but an allegorical film,” one that points to the Western as a genre both empty and ominous.