Kingsajz is a 1988 cult Polish comedy fantasy film directed by Juliusz Machulski. The action takes place in late communist Poland and in a fictional Lilliputian kingdom called Szuflandia (Drawerland), hidden deep underground the Quaternary Research Institute. The movie is an allegory of a communist regime and thus was received very enthusiastically by anti-communist society.
Kingsajz used highly oversized props and sets, supervised by production designer Janusz Sosnowski, intended to capture the difference in size between the little people and the large things from the above ground world that they use. The Drawerland sets were built in Łódź Studio soundstages as wall-to-wall set-constructions. Some scenes were optically enhanced by matte painting by artists from Barrandov Studios. As of 2024, some of the largest surviving props from the film (such as a giant telephone, a gigantic lady's shoe, a car-sized iron teapot used in the krasnoludki land of Szuflandia / Drawerland, gate-sized kitchen utensils, and more) are displayed outside the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź.
The film featured deliberate references to Machulski's earlier and even more famous comedy Vabank (itself a nod to the classic 1973 caper film The Sting) and its sequel Vabank II, by including the two characters of "Kwintek" and "Kramerko", played by the same actors who portrayed Vabank's protagonist, the principled safe-cracker Kwinto, and the antagonist, the crooked banker Kramer.
Contents
Title
The name of the film, "Kingsajz", is "King Size" spelled phonetically in Polish. In the movie Kingsajz is the name of a world of humans, in contrast to the Drawerland which is a land of gnomes. In Drawerland everything is miniature and mediocre and above ground everything is considered king size. The name Kingsajz is also the name of a green potion that allows a gnome to become human sized for a certain period.
Plot
Olo Jedlina is a gnome, and while serving the government of Drawerland he is permitted to visit Kingsajz, the realm of humans. However, after getting few drops of a potion that change him to achieve human proportions he decides to stay in Kingsajz for good and he avoids shrinking by regularly drinking a soda drink called Polo-Cockta. He becomes a journalist for a popular magazine and the boyfriend of an attractive model and lives a peaceful life, although in Drawerland he is considered to be a traitor.
His close friend Adaś Happs, a scientist that once helped to produce the Kingsajz potion, rebelled and escaped too. While hiding in Kingsajz he works in his secret laboratory to discover the potion formula, hoping to be able to manufacture it one day and give it to all the gnomes in Drawerland.
The movie starts when Adaś finally discovers the secret and has to immediately escape from his lab which is being demolished by human sized gnome agents that tracked him down. He manages to contact Olo and tell him everything, but before they meet Adaś is kidnapped right in front of Olo. Before that happens however he puts the vial into a pocket of Ala that unknowingly to Olo was also asked by Adaś to be there.
Olo follows her wanting to get the vial with Kingsajz but Ala doesn't trust him at their first meeting, and just shows him empty pocket with a hole in it. She follows him for a while and when they meet at a fashion show in which Olo's girlfriend takes part Ala reveals that she still has a vial and gives it to Olo.
They both decide to free Adaś from Drawerland when he is being interrogated and tortured. They seek help of two others who concoct the plan and lead the rescue action but unfortunately both die before reaching Drawerland.
When Olo gets there alone and liliput-sized he allows himself to be captured and manages to fool Drawerland's high officials that he is in fact a secret agent working on Adaś's case. He gives a name of gnome secret service official that he knew was killed very recently and tells it was his superior and the only person that knew about Olo's assignment. Gnomes don't fully believe him but allow him to meet Adaś. Adaś gives him a message with Kingzajz formula encoded into it.
Cast
Jacek Chmielnik as Olo (Olgierd) Jedlina
Grzegorz Heromiński as Adaś (Adam) Haps
Katarzyna Figura as Ala
Jerzy Stuhr as Kilkujadek, Drawerland's high official
Jan Machulski as Kwintek, "specialist" I
Leonard Pietraszak as Kramerko, "specialist" II
Witold Pyrkosz as Bombalina, Olo's superior
Maciej Kozłowski as Waś
Joachim Lamża as Zyl
Leon Charewicz as Gil
Bronisław Wrocławski as Pycio
Olgierd Łukaszewicz as Paragraf
Marek Walczewski as Ala's father
Liza Machulska as Ewa
Halina Machulska as Ewa's mother
Sławomir Kryński as man in fez on the marketplace
Zdzisław Kuźniar as man in bonnet on the marketplace
Beata Tyszkiewicz as woman on the marketplace
Ryszard Kotys as Nosacz, the prisoner
Jan Paweł Kruk as Muchomor, the prisoner
Mariusz Saniternik as Małolet, the prisoner
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