‘The Peasants‘ Co-Creator Hugh Welchman Talks Genesis Of Ambitious Animated Literary Adaption – Contenders International
Deadline
The husband-and-wife team behind 2019 feature animation Oscar nominee Loving Vincent, DK and Hugh Welchman, is back in the awards race this season with The Peasants.
Adapted from Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont’s classic turn-of-the-century novel of the same name, the production uses the same hand-painted technique as its predecessor but on a grander scale.
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The drama revolves a free-spirited young woman, Jagna, determined to forge her own path in a late 19th century Polish village. She is knocked off course when she is married off to a wealthy widower, while being in love with his son.
Alongside being Poland’s International Feature Film Oscar entry, the work is also in the running for Animated Feature.
Hugh Welchman credits wife DK with coming up with the idea of adapting the novel.
“It’s a classic in Poland but when she read it at 16, she struggled with it. When she read it again in her 20s, she appreciated it for its incredible breadth and beauty,” he said on a panel for the film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International.
“It’s a story of a community over the course of a year and these very dramatic events, but it also tells the cycle of the agricultural year, the changing of the seasons. It’s got some of the most breathtaking descriptions of nature.”
Welshman recounted how DK sourced translations of the book for him to read without revealing her adaptation ambitions.
“It had been out of print since 1943 so she had to buy antique copies online from America and Britain. I was very intimidated by this pile of antique books and put them to one side until we finished Loving Vincent,” he recounts.
He finally found time to read them during a health retreat after completing that film’s promotional tour.
“I wasn’t allowed to look at my mobile phone, watch any films, read any emails, nothing for a whole month. I thought, if I don’t read this intimidating pile of antique books now, I’m never going to read them,” he said.
“Unfortunately, there’s a surprising number of descriptions of food and meals. So, it made me very hungry because I was having juices.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.