Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder explains the scene he is about to paint, of Christ Carrying the Cross.

Picture gallery

 In the second half of the 16th century, the Netherlands are under the control of Philip II of Spain, who is doing his best to root out the Reformation, suffering heretics to die horrible deaths. Shocked, the painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder secretly criticizes Spain’s violence by painting "Christ Carrying the Cross", a panorama in which Christ is almost lost in a multitude of characters. As the scene is slowly set (from the windmill to the “tree of death”, with slices of the lives of the main Dutch characters), the tension builds up to the inevitable crucifixion. Video artist, writer, poet, painter, musician and director Lech Wajewski collaborated on this film with M. F. Gibson, the writer of a study of of Bruegel’s painting. The film is hypnotizing in the perfection of its form (it took three years to collect the images that were inserted against a backdrop painted by Majewski himself) and the distance it imposes, making it conducive to reflection. With street scenes, interiors, gallows, executions on a public square, children playing and peasants dancing, the master uses his painting to remind viewers how furtive life is.