Polish director Lech Majewski’s narrative is the story of how Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted his masterpiece ‘The Way to Calvary’ in 1564. It relates of the painstaking way that Bruegel took with every minute detail of all the many characters and action that take place on his canvas. What few words are spoken are mainly by Bruegel himself as he explains some of his thought process behind each of the tableaus to Jonghelinck his Patron. The main action of the film is the observation of the daily lives of all the local peasant families, the townspeople and the militia that are the players in this piece. Majewski includes no commentary on this, so many things that happen such as the cow being wheeled around in a cart and its owner being seized and bound to a cartwheel that is hoisted in the sky on a pole and pecked to death by vultures (?), happen without any explanation, and are at times, confusing to say the least.
★★★★★★★★
