Berlin celebrates its bears, Wroclaw is filled with dwarves, and Opole loves… llamas! Here’s how these South American camelids became an integral part of our area’s culture and often sought-out spots on local maps. It all started with Opole Llamas Film Festival, originally devised in 2003, targeting interested amateurs and students (or graduates) of cinematography schools. The event has been taking place every October since (in the case of this year, it is scheduled to run from the 4th to the 12th). More information is available on the official website [via Google Translate].
Showcases during the extravaganzas have so far featured e.g. Polish productions, international cinema (the next celebration having a planned additional section dedicated to Italy), different yearly topics, documentaries, content for children, and television series. Since 2008, the awards have also included the Honorary Lama, given to people working in the field as a way to commemorate the full extent of their works while providing attendees with retrospectives on the awardees’ older features. Other connected occasions happening as a part of the project include various concerts, meet-and-greets, exhibitions and youth workshops.
The first four large-scale statues, based on the prize statuettes, were put up in 2016 during a special event as part of the festival’s 14th installment. Their names were Lama Gaga, Lambert, Laminator, and Lames Bond. The subsequent edition resulted in the appearance of Dalajlama, Lamadeusz, Lamanda, Lamelia, and Lamar. 2021 brought in two more representatives of the group, L’amour and Lamatrix. The youngest of the animal statues, pictured in this article’s attached image and prepared by two Belarusian artists – Anastasiya Atrashkevich and Dzimitry Bayeshka, was unveiled the following year and currently resides on the Univeristy of Opole’s campus grounds, in front of the Student Culture Centre.
Thanks to the cultural tradition, searching for these art pieces turned into a trail through the region’s many interesting spots, as outside of Opole, the amusing figures can be found in Głuchołazy’s city center and Kluczbork’s “Bajka” cinema. Their presence has garnered many fans, resulting in an attempted theft of one of the specimens on the night of the 23rd of April, 2018 (the statue was only moved by about 200 meters from its “Meduza” cinema location and luckily remained intact). Click the link to learn other known locations and painters behind the canvasses, view the llamas photos, or listen to their Polish-language “voice recordings”: [LINK – via Google Translate].
(photo: OPOlink.pl)
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