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Poland · 2000
1h 13m
Director Jerzy Stuhr
Starring Jerzy Stuhr, Anna Dymna, Dominika Bednarczyk, Błażej Wójcik
Genre Comedy, Drama
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Zygmunt, a middle-aged banker, finds a camel in his yard. Though initially taken aback by the strange animal, he and his wife Marysia take the camel in as their pet. "The Big Animal" soon attracts the attention of Zygmunt's hostile small town neighbors, and the situation spins out of control when complaints reach the authorities.
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Mr. Stuhr, an actor who worked frequently with Kieslowski and who plays the main character in this film, honors his old friend's memory, producing a minor but nonetheless charming footnote to his oeuvre.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The drama is a gentle, witty parable of the mixed feelings some people show toward free choice when it confronts them not in theory but in everyday life.
A rueful yet gentle fable about the price of individuality and the value of dignity that preserves the intellectually stimulating spirit of Kieslowski's best work while tapping into a universally understandable vein of low-keyed absurdist comedy.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
This black-and-white movie features an enduring image: an ordinary couple at the dinner table with the giant, Dr. Seuss-like head of the camel filling their window ominously, ridiculously, like another dinner guest -- or like the proverbial elephant in the room that no one will address.
Shooting in dreamy black and white, Stuhr finds quiet poetry in shots of his character wandering the countryside with his new friend, and deadpan comedy in scenes of the camel patiently watching his new owners eat dinner, his head filling a window frame as he waits for scraps.
Every frame gleams and the camel -- a double-humped wonder whose unusual majesty and quiet mystery drives this wonderful film -- is magnificent to behold.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The tale's faux-fable simplicity is cunningly eloquent.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
Audiences for this film should have no such qualms: When the camel lolls his jaws at dinnertime, or sways his Bactrian bulk, you may decide you've never seen anything quite so hilarious -- or magnificent.
San Francisco Chronicle by Ruthe Stein
Doesn't have much to say.
Working from an unfinished script by the late, great Krzysztof Kieslowski, Stuhr directs in a laid-back, deadpan style that, at times, recalls Fellini.
If she can hide her past, and he can hide his present, they just might have a future.