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Kingsajz

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Quotation from film 'Kingsajz' advertising XXXIV Polish Film Festival in Gdynia 2009

Kingsajz is a 1987 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.

Title

The name of the film, "Kingsajz", is actually "King Size" with the spelling altered so that it can be pronounced correctly in Polish. Such alteration of the spelling of foreign, especially English, words is considered amusing in Poland. In the movie Kingsajz is the name of a world of grown men, in contrast to the Drawerland where little people live. In Drawerland everything is miniature and mediocre and above ground everything is king size. Also a green potion that allows a little person to become a "big man" for a certain period of time is called Kingsajz.

Plot

Olo Jedlina (Olo is informal for Olgierd) was born a little person, and while serving the government of Drawerland he is permitted to visit Kingsajz. However, after getting few drops of a potion that made him human-sized he decides to stay in Kingsajz for good and by drinking a human soda drink called Polo-Cockta regularly he avoids shrinking. 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 traitor and refugee.

His close friend Adaś Happs (Adaś is informal for Adam) is a scientist that once helped to produce the Kingsajz potion, rebelled and escaped too. 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 little people in Drawerland.

The movie starts when Adaś finally discovers the secret and has to immediately escape from his lab which is being demolished by little people 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. It also turns out that she in fact designed the collection.

They both decide to free Adaś from Drawerland when he is being interrogated and tortured. They seek help of two others liliputs that concoct the plan and lead the rescue action but unfortunatedly 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 secret agent working on Adaś's case. He gives a name of liliput secret service official that he knew was killed very recently and tells it was his superior and only person that knew about Olo's assignment. Liliputs don't fully believe him but allow him to meet Adaś. Adaś gives him a message with Kingzajz formula encoded into it.

After that Olo manages to escape from Drawerland but the vial with Kingsajz which Adaś gave Ala earlier gets smashed so although he is free, he remains a liliput. Ala manages to decipher Adaś's message and knowing the potion ingredients she tries several times with different proportions but fails each time. When she is all resigned Olo manages to contact telepathically with Adaś and learns that water which is one of the ingredients must come from a rusty tap in Adaś'a flat.

When Ala goes there and gets water she manages to produce the potion seconds before liliput agents break into her flat to kidnap Olo. The potion works just at the right time for Olo to help the girl and knock down the agents.

Soon Adaś uses telepathy once more to call for help as Drawerland official deciphered his message too, accused him of treason and the rebel scientist is about to be executed. Olo and Ala manages to save him just in time and Olo goes to Drawerland human-sized to get his friend. There he faces three officials that were after him from the beginning. During the fight they give each other shrinking injections and keep fighting liliput-sized until all three officials are defeated.

Movie ends with Olo, Adaś, Ala and her father who also was a liliput traveling in a train. They are all happy and cheerful when they notice that train is in fact a model and through the window they see a giant figure of a boy playing with it. They are all terrified when it turns out that there is something more above Kingsajz.

Cast

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