Polish Legends: The Dragon

Polish Legends: The Dragon is a 14-minute live-action short film from the Polish Legends series which is a nicely crafted modernized version of the famous Wawel Dragon legend that terrorized Kraków centuries ago.

Legend has it that once there was a dragon that lived in a cave at the foot of Wawel Hill on the bank of Vistula River in Kraków. The frightening monster terrorized villages killing people and demanding young girls for meals. The King promised that the knight who slays the beast would marry his beautiful daughter. Great warriors fought for the prize and all of them failed, but there was also one brave shoemaker that accepted the challenge. He set up a trap, leaving a fake sheep filled with sulfur and set it outside the cave. After eating it the dragon became incredibly thirsty so he drank the whole water out of the Vistula River and he exploded.

Even though there are considerable changes to the original story, the spirit is of stays the same. The film has many references to both the history as well as to the modern Polish culture. Let’s start with the melody called Hejnał Mariacki which is played on the trumpet every day at every hour from the St. Mary’s Church tower a the Market Square in Kraków. To commemorate the trumpeter who played it in the XIII century to warn the city about the coming danger the piece cuts short in the moment the legendary historical trumpeter got shot with an arrow.  

Instead of a dragon, there’s a futuristic aircraft with a creepy-looking muscleman Adolf Kamczatkov that is kidnapping attractive young women. The name of the dragon is clearly a reference to the political situation of Germany and Russia being the two greatest threats to Poland. The brave knight is not a shoemaker as in the original story, but brave robots builder named Janek. The film is set in a modern-day Kraków and stuffed with outstanding special effects as well as polish renowned actors.

Tomasz Bagiński – something of a legend himself - is best known for The Cathedral, a short film that was nominated to Oscar, but he also directed the BAFTA-wining animated movie Fallen Art, as well as the short Ambitions which features Game of Thrones star Aiden Gillen. Bagiński said that the idea to retell polish legends was born because there’s scarcity of movies of such ilk in Poland and the sci-fi genre is getting more and more popular abroad. The Dragon is just one movie in the series of the Polish Legends, initiated by the Allegro (Polish AlliExpress) and Plantige Image (world-known special effects producer). On YouTube (you can turn on english subtitles), you can also find adaptations of other popular folk tales directed by Bagiński such as Jaga (the witch) Basilisk (mythical beast) or Twardowsky (a man that made a pact with the devil).  I really can’t wait for The Witcher created by Bagiński for Netflix set to premiere in 2018!