Bydgoszcz from Dawn till Dusk

Bydgoszcz is not a metropolis.And that distinguishes it from the capitals which have so far been portrayed in the cycle “The World from Dawn till Dusk”. Although life has a slower rhythm here, Bydgoszcz doesn’t give the impression of being a provincial town. The town centre, picturesquely criss-crossed by canals, is vibrant with street life. You can see new, stylishly built developments and the people, as you’d expect, are always rushing somewhere… Our guide around Bydgoszcz is a chimney sweep. An authentic figure– but also poetically metaphorical –he looks down onto the town from the height of the roofs and chimneys. With him we enter flats and houses and we listen to typical neighbourly conversations, where more important than words is body language, human behaviour, smiles and looks. We find plenty of warmth and trust in this little theatre of everydayness; much more than we would expect. There’s the same feel-good atmosphere in scenes featuring a lottery retailer’s, and then in a conversation with an elderly film fan about his favourite movies. Then there’s a moving scene about the everyday care of an elderly woman suffering from memory loss. The weight of these conversations slowly grows, to reach its climax in an amazing discussion involving gravediggers at the back of an undertaker’s, who, after the working day is over, begin to wrangle over the existence of God and the difference between being alive and being dead.