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The Big Animal

Play trailer Poster for The Big Animal 2000 1h 10m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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95% Tomatometer 22 Reviews 88% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A schoolteacher (Anna Dymna) and her bank-clerk husband (Jerzy Stuhr) find a camel that a traveling circus left in their garden.

Critics Reviews

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Ted Fry Seattle Times 10/08/2004
3/4
Delightfully poetic for all of its ironic and allegorical subtleties. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 06/11/2004
3/4
It is whimsical, bittersweet, wise in a minor key. Go to Full Review
Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune 06/10/2004
3/4
Memorializes a complex man and his deceptively simple work, by a friend and colleague in a fitting tribute. Go to Full Review
Gabriel Cohen DeVries Film Journal International 03/01/2007
The crisp, elegant black-and-white cinematography by Academy Award nominee Pawel Edelman (The Pianist) is well-matched to the simplicity of the narrative. Go to Full Review
Kent Turner Film-Forward.com 09/26/2006
3.5/5
This film is a natural for tweens and teens, like The Yearling or the British film Ring of Bright Water. Go to Full Review
Uri Lessing www.kcactive.com 07/25/2005
4/5
Kieslowski has written a film about how people, when confronting something new, often react with anger and even vengeance. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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08/02/2012 Directed by and starring the likeable Jerzy Stuhr, this is a nice little film from Poland that was shot in black and white, and comes off the better for it. See more 05/29/2010 Pretty great Polish film commenting on the Communist era but really covering the intolerance of society in general toward anything resembling individuality that reads a lot like an episode of The Prisoner in which he had grown old, married a sweet lady, and acquired a camel. Highly recommended if you're looking for something of a quiet, poetic nature. See more 11/21/2009 What happened to the camel in the end? It has quirky moments and is meaningful but not LOL funny. It's more to show how ignorant and selfish people work to force other kind people (the main characters, married couple who keep the pet) to confine to their own thinking. If you think about it, there are people who behave like the neighbours and government when you get the camel, which can be something trival from a small gift to career promotion. It's the bad people pretending to be good when they say "Let by gones be by gones" when they had done something bad. See more 09/12/2009 not the best film but absolutely brilliant idea and enjoyable result. See more 06/17/2009 well-filmed, nearly poetic picture from Stuhr. certainly not great, but still a good watch. See more 01/26/2009 Although this has very little to do with Kieslowski (his scrip was extensively altered), it remains a worthy lyrical and nostalgic film. Perhaps a bit too slowly paced for all purposes, but definitely charming in many ways. You will really want to get a camel after you see this! See more Read all reviews
The Big Animal

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Movie Info

Synopsis A schoolteacher (Anna Dymna) and her bank-clerk husband (Jerzy Stuhr) find a camel that a traveling circus left in their garden.
Director
Jerzy Stuhr
Producer
Slawomir Rogowski
Screenwriter
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
Polish
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 21, 2000, Wide
Runtime
1h 10m