“Hymn of Urban Evenings” is an animation based on a poem by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński. The film portrays the narrator’s sense of alienation from the city — a human figure is cut out from the cold, foreign space which, instead of offering shelter, becomes a grey backdrop to his inner experiences. Image and word come together in a reflection on the city as a colorless, cold organism in which it is difficult to find oneself.
Accompanied by a happy, marching soundtrack, this experimental animation inter-cuts spinning childhood toys with brooding violence and military force. The sly critique extends to film itself, where the hand-drawn time code mimics the digital precision of video.
Like warriors preparing for battle, these labourers strap on all manner of protective equipment before going to work down on their hands and knees in molten tar, road-laying. The final application of paint markings indicates a job well done, but with the terrifying fall of a pickax, the cycle begins again.
Images of nature with no human presence are contrasted with an urban industrial landscape.
