Elephant

In this lovely gay romance, 22-year-old Bartek runs a small horse farm in the remote mountains of Poland and looks after his mother who is afraid of being left alone. One day, Dawid arrives in the village for his father’s funeral. He is a musician, older, and more cosmopolitan than Bartek and his seeming opposite. But the old adage is true and soon the two are involved in an illicit affair which quickly evolves into a romance. At the same time, Bartek’s pregnant sister returns from abroad, needing help. Spontaneously, Bartek goes with Dawid to a gay club in a nearby city which fuels Bartek’s desire to leave home. When they return, the couple is confronted by a homophobic inscription on the barn wall. Dawid immediately decides to leave, urging Bartek to go with him, but Bartek’s responsibilities weigh on him. Will he find the courage to leave home and reach out to happiness? Writer-director Kamil Krawczycki shot part of his film in one of Poland’s notoriously conservative “LGBT-free zones”—areas that reject any form of “LGBT propaganda”—making ELEPHANT the first such film of its kind to come out of Poland.