THE LULLABY

A picturesque village in the Mazurian Lake District, the proverbial back of beyond. The Makarewicz family – grandfather, father, mother, four children (a fifth is on the way) – move into an old farmhouse. One thing is immediately clear: this is no average family. And why do the locals suddenly start to disappear? The police investigations unearth more mysteries instead of tangible results. A television crew arrives determined to get to the bottom of the matter, but then the reporters begin to vanish without trace. Polish comedy specialist Juliusz Machulski’s lively vampire spoof offers state-of-the-art insight into the workaday life of the undead. Full of unexpected turns, his portrait of a centuries-old family shows lust for blood combined with all too human worries (granddad’s dental problems, for one thing). Elegantly juggling beauty and horror, tension and absurdity, Machulski also finds time to satirize provincial Polish life: the fun and games end with a hair-raising political turnabout. And we finally learn the shocking truth about the methods by which vampires keep human stocks for future consumption.