Anthropology professor Michal develops two overwhelming obsessions. The first one is a mummified, 3,000 year-old, perfectly preserved body of a shaman he and his colleagues have recently dragged out of a swamp. The second is an enigmatic student he meets by chance at a railway station.
Acting
Iwona Petry's feral, untrained performance that Żuławski discovered in a cafe
Direction
Żuławski's signature 'psychological tremor' camera work at maximum chaos
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes academic jargon into erotic weaponry
Director
Andrzej Żuławski
Bogusław Linda
Michał
Iwona Petry
Włoszka
Piotr Machalica
Anna's Father
Paweł Burczyk
Marcin
Stanisław Jaskułka
Lecturer of AGH
Agnieszka Wagner
Anna
Paweł Deląg
Jules
Piotr Zelt
Michal's Friend
Sebastian Konrad
Michal's Friend
Grzegorz Emanuel
Michal's Collaborator
Marcin Dorociński
Student (uncredited)
Artur Krajewski
Michal's brother's lover
Piotr Zelt
Michal's friend
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Iwona Petry had zero acting experience; Żuławski cast her after spotting her at a Warsaw cafe and essentially created the role around her unpredictable energy.
Released in 1996, this was Żuławski's return to Poland after 15 years of exile, and critics savaged it as 'pornographic'—now it's considered his late masterpiece of unhinged feminine power.
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