IF YOU TAKE a slice out of the formalities of matchmaking and weddings from Fiddler on the Roof, and slot it in alongside some of the more potent scenes involving the beautiful widow in Nikos Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek, sprinkle the concoction rather heavily with romanticised farmgirl wholesomeness, you will reach The Peasants, a romantic tragedy brought to filmic life with a mix of stop-frame animation and oil paint. It features on this year’s European Film Festival, online for free and at cinemas in Johannesburg and Cape Town, from 10 until 20 October 2024.

Narratively, this work follows very old storytelling tropes that highlight the reality that marriage is political and love, taboo. And it is here where we meet Jagna (Kamila Urzedowska). The prettiest young woman in the village by far, she has the thoughts and hands of all her young male contemporaries aflutter whenever she walks by. But her mother and the older generation at large, see her future with a rich widower. For them, it will be a win-win for all. Especially the old, newly single, man in question.

But then there’s Antek (Robert Gulaczyk). Jagna and he have had hot eyes for one another for quite some time. Pity that he’s married and she’s about to wed his dad. But that’s another whole story. As it unfolds, the mob’s anger becomes a tinderbox. Everyone knows about Antek and Jagna but no one is brave or loyal enough to help either of them, to stop the proverbial snowball that is in the process of descending on the village. It’s a behemoth of gossip and jealousy, of blessings that easily turn into curses and a situation that gets neighbours raising their garden forks against neighbours.

The work is handled in a similar technique to that of Loving Vincent, screened in 2018. It involves repainting every single film still and allowing the photographic image to become almost a veneer. It’s like watching a very clichéd painting turn to life. While the labour force employed in making it – publicity material cites over 100 painters – is astonishing, with its attention to detail, the final product is deeply distracting to watch and strips the characters of authenticity completely.

Not sufficiently resting on the drawn line, and not sufficiently allowing photographic nuance to dominate, the overall effect sits blandly between two stools and compromises some of the emotive edge of the story. Also, with AI in the technological picture (it wasn’t yet a thing in 2018), it may make you suspicious of the work as a piece in its own right.

This is a pity. The fabric of the tale is a brutal one, premised on the story of Christ. The way in which society can turn, to a man, against one hapless wrongdoer is a cipher for our world, in the past, present and future. And the love triangle of land, tradition and freedom, an eternal one. The story’s important. The telling of it in this film trivialises into cliché after clever technological cliché, which puts brakes on your ability to imbibe it.

• The Peasants is directed by Dorota Kobiela Welchman and Hugh Welchman and features a cast headed by Miroslaw Baka, Klara Bielawka, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Lech Dyblik, Cyprian Grabowski, Jaroslaw Gruda, Anna Grzeszczak, Robert Gulaczyk, Ewa Kasprzyk, Mariusz Kiljan, Andrzej Konopka, Helena Korczycka, Malgorzata Kozuchowska, Szymon Kukla, Cezary Lukaszewicz, Andrzej Luter, Matt Malecki, Malgorzata Maslanka-Krajewska, Andrzej Mastalerz, Sonia Mietielica, Maciej Musial, Marek Pys, Mateusz Rusin, Piotr Srebrowski, Dorota Stalinska, Mariusz Urbaniec, Kamila Urzedowska, Jadwiga Wianecka, Tomasz Wiecek and Julia Wieniawa-Narkiewicz. Written by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman based on the eponymous 1904 novel by Władysław Stanislaw Reymont, it is produced by Sean M. Bobbitt and Hugh Welchman and features creative input by Lukasz Rostkowski (music), Szymon Kuriata, Radek Ladczuk and Kamil Polak (cinematography), Beata Hincke, Patrycja Piróg, Miki Wecel and DK Welchman (editing), Ewa Brodzka (casting), Piotre Dominiak and Elwira Pluta (production design) and Katarzyna Lewinska (costumes). In Polish with English subtitles, it is part of the 11^th European Film Festival South Africa, screening at The Zone in Rosebank Johannesburg, The Labia in Cape Town and online from 10-20 October 2024.