In this year's catalog, I weaved all the festival films into one narration – a picture story, a comic book. Its main hero is Quentin Tarantino who, suffering from an artistic crisis, embarks on a journey through Asia, in search of inspiration.

It isn't hard to imagine this journey really taking place. The director is known for his admiration for films from the Far East – he promotes them and is often friends with their makers. In his own productions he uses many elements taken from Asian aesthetics and plots (he admits it himself: “I steal from every single movie ever made”). Quentin's walk through the film shots can sometimes be very literal – at the Festival we can see him not only on the pages of the catalog, but also in Takashi Miike's “Sukiyaki Western Django.”

I feel connected to Quentin Tarantino in our mutual fascination with Asian cinema. Just like me, he values genre productions, strong emotions, bloody screen massacres, swift action, humor, and sharp, comic book-like characters. When I paint, I too like using references to the art of different cultures. Joon-ho Bong's “Memoirs of Murder“ is on the third place on Tarantino's top films list – it's the first on mine.

To wrap it up – Tarantino is one of “my guys.” And he has a face which is just asking to be drawn. He often makes his own caricatures when he gives away autographs. He has already been a protagonist of a comic book – a zombie, Benton Tarantella, in an episode of “Courage The Cowardly Dog” with a meaningful title “Everyone Wants to Direct.” This time the zombie world will be just one of the stops in his film journey.

Dorota Podlaska