King Size

There is a world of dwarves called Shilbertland. Everyone there must stay small and the drink that makes you grow is banned. A dwarf journalist breaks the ban, reaches human size and comes out into the real world. Then he goes back to bring the system down. Juliusz Machulski wrote and directed. It was made in 1988, in the last years of the regime in Poland, and its allegory is not hidden at all: being kept small, a forbidden liquid, and a bureaucracy serving the system. The censors passed it because the story is fantastical, but audiences understood what was being described and it was a large box office success. The effects were ambitious for Polish cinema of the period, using scaled sets and optical tricks to create the difference in size. Machulski joins the comedy template to political satire and keeps the tone light; the film never claims seriousness. Who it is for: viewers who like eastern European satire and fantastical comedy. Who it is not for: anyone who cares about effects quality; technically it sits inside the limits of its time.