Based on the 1869 gothic novel by Prosper Mérimée, LOKIS concerns a pastor and ethnographer who visits a remote corner of 19th-century Lithuania where folk customs associated with the area's pagan past still resonate. There he finds himself the guest of a sadistic Count and his mad mother, who according to local legend was raped by a bear on her wedding night, the Count himself reputed to be the product of this bestial assault.

A brooding, atmospheric cult classic, LOKIS won Janusz Majewski honors for Best Director at the 1971 Sitges Film Festival and is, in the words of writer Vladimir Gromov, “a reflection on human nature, the impact of civilization and how the archaic and the modern are intertwined in the Polish soul.”

DIRECTED BY JANUSZ MAJEWSKI
POLAND | 1970 | POLISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES