Kmicic’s Cut. The Hidden Anal History of Polish Cinema

The author analyzes Tomasz Kozak’s video Klasztor Inversus [Cloister Inversus] (2003), in which selected scenes from the film adaptation of Sienkiewicz’s The Trilogy mix with a gay pornographic film. In this way, Kozak exposes the perverse nature of national culture. It is anality that enables one to negate the obligation to reproduce the conservative codes of Polish culture, opening up to the creation of non-traditional, non-patriarchal, and non-heteronormative social practices. Viewing Kozak’s video through the prism of various types of cuts – montage, anal, censorial – provokes reflection on cinema as a medium that not so much satisfies the desire for domination but rather promises masochistic jouissance.