#just imagine Jurko and Jan in such a scene

[theophan-o]

An example of pobratymy (побратими, bracia ślubni) from the Old Polish culture:

watercolor by the famous Polish artist, Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899), 43,5 cm X 33 cm, 1857, used as an illustration to Zygmunt Gloger's (1845-1910) The Old Polish Encyclopedia (Encyklopedia staropolska), for the entry Bracia ślubni (vol. I, 1990, p. 194):

Bracia ślubni. Tradycja głosi o dawnym zwyczaju polskim — zaprzysięgania sobie nawzajem miłości braterskiej dozgonnej przez ludzi, niepołączonych z sobą węzłami pokrewieństwa, ale tylko przyjaźni. I był to ślub przyjaźni — uroczysty, piękny, dochowywany wiernie do grobu. Ci co sobie dozgonną wiarę przyjaźni poprzysięgli, nosili miano „braci ślubnych“. Temat powyższy posłużył w połowie XIX wieku dwum wielkim artystom polskim do osnucia na nim dwuch utworów: Zygmunt Kaczkowski napisał prześliczną powieść 3-tomową p. n. „Bracia ślubni“, a Juljusz Kossak wykonał akwarellę, przedstawiającą przysięgę wzajemną dwuch rycerzy, wyruszających na wojnę. Z obrazu Kossaka podajemy podobiznę, a z powieści Kaczkowskiego słowa podniosłej przysięgi: „A kiedybyśmy obadwa tylko jeden grosz mieli, tedy połowa należeć będzie jednemu, a połowa drugiemu. A kiedyby nam obudwum tylko jedna pozostała ręka, tedy ta ręka ma pracować na chleb dla obudwuch. A kiedyby nam obudwum tylko dwie zostały nogi, tedy te nogi mają nosić ciała obudwuch“.

Married brothers. Tradition tells of an old Polish custom — taking a mutual oath of lifelong brotherly love by people not connected by kinship, but only by friendship. And it was a vow of friendship — solemn, beautiful, faithfully kept until the grave. Those who swore undying faith and friendship to each other were called "married brothers". In the mid-19th century, the above topic was used by two great Polish artists: Zygmunt Kaczkowski wrote a beautiful three-volume novel called "Married Brothers", and Juliusz Kossak made a watercolor depicting the mutual oath of two knights going to war. We put here a copy of Kossak's painting, and from Kaczkowski's novel we quote the words of a solemn oath: "And if we both had only one penny, then half would belong to one and half to the other. And if we both have only one hand left, then this hand must work for bread for both of us. And if we both have only two legs left, then these legs are to carry the bodies of both of us."

@kozakk, something specially for you!

[kringelorde]

it never occurred to me bc why the FUCK would it but I really cannot overstate the fact that making a character illiterate in the original work but literate in the adaptation is comedy gold

jurko bohun, man who cannot read and does everything possible to hide this fact in the novel. jurko bohun, man who has to suffer the embarrassment of having his drinking buddy read out how he’s being cucked by a random polish knight.

jurko bohun, man who reads that letter himself in the film version. obvs it’s just for scene flow/pacing, but it opens the door to the absolutely fucking hysterical implication that he just looked at the scribbles on the paper and imagined a guy to get mad at, more or less. man wants a guy skinned alive based on what he thinks a letter says. he could have literally just intercepted jan’s fucking tax returns for all he knows. he goes and kills his entire adopted family only to find out that what he “read” was a grocery list and there was no reason for any of this. little to big domino image but the start is “pretending to read a soup recipe” and the end is “restarting an ethnic conflict seconds after it ends”.

mwah mwah you absolute fucking lunatic <3

[meadowlarkx]

YOU SENT NAMES I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

okay, this is going under a read more, it got long!! (and pictures)(i know approximately none of these actors so prepare for many entirely-photo-based comments

seriously i love you i’m still smiling

Helena -  Michalina Olszańska

I love this?? She’s gorgeous and she has this ... helena look. she looks like she could be earnest and determined and also astonished and young and innocent while also being sort of... having helena’s kind of subtle edgy I Have Gone Through Things-ness too. that didn’t make any sense but trust me.

also look at this Short Hair Helena haircut:

(also she’s BEAUTIFUL in the promo stuff for matilda)

Katarzyna Ucherska

she looks so girlish and innocent?! i love??

Skrzetuski - Adam Fidusiewicz

first of all let’s pretend i would ever be able to replace Żebrowski

Tbh looking at this guy at first i was not convinced? But now...you have convinced me

Kamil Kula 

I like him too??!! He looks like he could do Jan tbh. I love his wide expressive eyes. and mischievous expression and/or Wry Amusement. also him being serious in that second picture....

Józef Pawłowski 

...this boy is so pretty 

his face is less how i personally imagine jan, but i think it could work, tbh. okay, scratch that, i don’t just think it could work, i think it could be WONDERFUL (and he was in Miasto 44!)

((also, while on this topic, i feel compelled to say that for various reasons which have nothing at all to do with acting and everything to do with Aesthetic, i always toy with the impossible idea of jade hassouné as a facecast for jan. consider:

it has sth to do with this expression? also dark hair &c (i adore book description of jan but not enough to renounce żebrowski’s nice gold-brown hair so i can’t commit :D) but this is a foolish occasional thought and i very much doubt he could act the role esp in a tv show in polish, so moving on to jurko!))

Bohun - Bartosz Gelner 

I kind of like him? he’s Striking in the way bohun is supposed to be, i like it. (not domogarov though (cries))

Aleksy Komorowski

this guy is less Striking but probably more bohun to me i guess? (STILL NOT DOMOGAROV (SOBS)) ironically most of the photos i found seemed v kmicic to me (it must have been the sunny careless expression!) but in these & others i do think he looks bohun..

Wołodyjowski - Tomasz Ziętek

YOU LITERALLY FOUND THE WORLD’S PERFECT MICHAŁ FACECAST I HATE YOU AND I LOVE YOU

Podbipięta - Piotr Stramowski 

I LOVE HIM TOO. all of his expressions are so longinus. i could see this working beautifully asdlkfjkldj 

Anusia - Olga Kalicka 

She is incredibly cute. (also, tbh i actually wondered for a while if anusia WAS blonde, before the book confirmed she was dark-haired!) she would be such a good anusia, i love (ALSO IMAGINE, A VERSION OF OGNIEM I MIECZEM WHERE ANUSIA ACTUALLY APPEARS ONSCREEN)

thank you again so so much asldkjfks

i agree with you about the flashbacks!!! i would love to see those. and yes yes anything with bohun and/or helena in rozłogi. or young jan & michał. and like - re the stuff that is in the book - EXACTLY. so much is either not onscreen, like the taking of bar, or glossed over when i’d love to see it in detail. there’s so much there!! also i would pay literal money for an adaptation that actually shows a scene of jan alone in the dniester (i hope i spelled that right?) the book doesn’t show it but a filmed version could do a small glimpse or sth...ANYWAY...