Franciszka Themerson

Europa is a 12-minute anti-fascist film made in 1931 in Warsaw, Poland by surrealists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson. The film is based on Anatol Stern's 1925 futurist poem Europa. It uses collages and photograms, and articulates the sense of horror and moral decline its makers were witnessing. The film, while long thought to have been lost, is considered an avant-garde masterpiece.

In the early inscriptions, this film is presented as a “lyrical bounce from reality” but not “senseless extravagance.” The plot involves a trek official to the advice of “There will be a hole in the sky even if you go back”, the procession of two people with a wardrobe and a march of people defending the established rules (“Down with walking backwards”). The formal aspect in the movie is a lot of trick shots using a mirror, photographs and negatives.

Four types of visual interpretation of four songs by Karol Szymanowski. Polish words by Julian Tuwin, English translation by Jan Sliwinski.

A short anti-war film denouncing the destruction of Polish national culture under the Nazis.

In 1930, Stefan and Franciszka Themerson made a controversial, black and white, silent, 35mm film in Warsaw. ‘Apteka’ was the first “moving photogram” and an innovation in experimental cinema. It disappeared during the German occupation of Poland. Bruce Checefsky’s extraordinary film ‘Pharmacy’ is based on the surviving notes, letters and stills from the original film and published reviews from Czas, Wiaomosci Literackic Polski Zbtgina, Swiatowid, Pion and Kuriet Polski.

A photogram, used previously only within art photography, is adapted to create abstract moving patterns.

The film is retracing the love story of an unusual and unique creative union. It is a well-hidden treasure in the culture and art of the 20th century. Franciszka and Stefan Themerson lived and worked together for almost sixty years, first in Poland, then in France and eventually they settled in England. The only time when they were separated was the outbreak of WW2 but even then they remained connected.

The original film Europa was made by Stefan and Franciska Themerson in Poland 1931 and was a visual interpretation of Anatol Stern’s 1929 poem Europa. The film was lost during the second world war and has never been recovered. This tape-slide reconstruction of Europa was made in 1983-84 by the Distribution Staff of the London Film Maker’s Co-Operative with Stefan and Franciszka Themerson using surviving stills from the film and a voice-over by John Claus.

Directed by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson.