Solo in a Fallow Field

The solitary work of an old farmer and his horse unfolds to the rhythm of a distorted song, "Beloved Country, Dear Country." The disruptions in sound and image, along with the backward movements of the figures, emphasize the dissonance between the propagandistic ideal of the People's Republic of Poland and everyday reality. Morning shaving, the empty interior of the house, and the absence of loved ones reinforce the image of isolation and tedious routine. In the finale, the plowing seen from above forms circles resembling the grooves on a vinyl record playing a mass song. Jerzy Kalina’s hand-drawn animation portrays the ethos of the farmer’s labor as a burden of loneliness and physical effort. The grandiose, collective folk song contrasts with the fate of the individual, while the formal “glitches” in the image become a metaphor for the unfulfilled promise of ideology and the growing bitterness of age.