Identification Marks: None

"Jerzy Skolimowski conceived Rysopis (Identification Marks: None) whilst he was still a student at the Łódź Film School. Rejecting the traditional career path of completing his studies to become an assistant director before directing his first film, which would have taken too long, the impetuous student took the fast path. He used every scrap of film provided during practical exercises to shoot scenes for his future film, creating daring long takes. ‘I was too impatient, too ambitious, too energetic, too young!’, he would later say. Skolimowski defied not only the conventions of the craft but also the laws of narrative. His film is constantly being constructed and deconstructed as it unfolds. The sequences appear to stand alone from one another. Chronology, dialogue, characters and situations intertwine in a shattered mosaic that leads to disorientation and, at times, even contradiction. Full of breaks and digressions yet perfectly controlled, Rysopis is similar to its protagonist, Andrzej Lezczyc (played by Skolimowski), a young volunteer recruit wavering in the few hours leading up to his departure for military service. ‘I’d like to be swept away somewhere against my will. While still being able to exercise my free will, despite everything. To be able to choose the direction, the speed, the route,’ says Andrzej. A film rooted in the reality of Polish youth in 1964, it is a portrait of a generation that could not recognise itself in existing film productions. In this respect, it foreshadows his next film, Walkover, in which these themes resurface and the form becomes even more defined." (Samantha Leroy; cinematheque.fr)