The twins from Cracow

a film by Bo Persson & Joanna Helander

The Twins from Cracow is a filmatic farewell to childhood, it is a film
about imagination and reality and a clash between contrasting worlds. Joanna
and Karolina are ten years old and they live in the ancient city of Cracow in
southern Poland. We accompany them on their first journey to Sweden, where
they are literally overwhelmed by the unspoiled natural beauty of the place.
Poland, their homeland, is a country wrapped in mysteries and dramatic
paradoxes, a state in the throes of political revolution and crucial
cultural changes. A shadowland in which a grim past provides a dark
background to the present-day dramas. An enigmatic world the twins try hard
to comprehend, as they journey through it with joy and curiosity in search
of an authentic way of life in the transformation from childhood to
adolescence.

The majority of scenes have beein filmed in Cracow and its surroundings:
near Rynek, the old square; Kleparz, the marketplace; Kazimierz, the former
Jewish district; and the vicinity of Auschwitz, a place the twins pass every
week on their Sunday visit to their uncle. Some scenes include professional
actors, as, for instance, when the twins encounter a marionett maker (played
by Per Oscarsson) in the forest in Sweden.

The film blends the dramatic and the lyrical, the absurd and the humorous;
en exquisite interplay of images, music and poetic narration.

Original title: Tvillingarna från Kraków
Directors & Screenwriters: Joanna Helander, Bo Persson
Director of Photography: Jacek Blawut, Jacek Petrycki
Sound: Krszysztof Sucholdolski, Bogumila Klopotowska
Mix: Owe Svensson
Still Photographer: Joanna Helander
Editors: Ewa Smal, Elzbieta Kurkowska
Music by: Lech Jankowski, Lidia Zielinska

The Twins: Joanna & Karolina Bieszczad
Cast: Per Oscarsson
Narrator: Stina Ekblad
Production Company: Kino Koszyk HB in co-operation with the Swedish Film
Institute
Running time: 40 min
Production year: 1994