.!? Period. Exclamations Mark! Questions Mark?

Directed, artwork by Jacek Adamczak and Maciej Ćwiek
Screenplay by Edyta Ćwiek
(based on the poem by Wanda Chotomska)
Animated by Jacek Adamczak, Anna Dudek, Grażyna Lipińska, Jacek Olszlagier, Barbara Wolińska
Music composed and performed by Janusz Hajdun
Voice by Zbigniew Grochal
Photography by Krzysztof Szyszka
Editing by Henryka Sitek
Sound by Mieczysław Janik
Produced by Jarosław Kryg
Classical and combined animation, 35 mm, kolor, 184 m/e, 06:45′, format 4:3
Date of production: 06.10.1989 © TV SFA

A poetic story about punctuation marks. An adaptation of a poem by Wanda Chotomska. In a certain town there is a shop with punctuation marks. On the shelves, in jelly-fish tins, there are dots, commas, dashes, exclamation marks and question marks. Two men enter the shop – they buy inverted commas. A girl runs in and asks for hyphens. A general turns up for exclamation marks. The shop is visited by two market women, because they need colons and commas to count. Poor students come in for semicolons to pass their exams. The shopkeeper is left with only question marks on the shelves and these he “tosses” to the poet, who uses them to ask important questions.

AWARDS:

DIPLOMA for the film direction, International Festival of Animated Films for Children – Biennial of Animation BAB’99, Bratislava, Slovakia / 1999
AWARD for an original design, 9th National Festival of Films for Children and Young People, Poznań, Poland / 1990
AWARD FOR ANIMATION for the year 1989 of the Association of Polish Filmmakers, Warszawa, Poland / 1990
AWARD for the best individual film for children, 1st Biennial of Animation Film Fazy’89, Bielsko-Biała, Poland / 1989

Wanda Chotomska

Period. Exclamations Mark! Questions Mark?

There is a shop,
With a sign in the front:
. ! ? [Period. Exclamations Mark! Questions Mark?]
You can get any mark you want

For your sentences to spark.
Anyone who reads the sign,
Is asked politely to come inside,
– You don’t have to stand in line

Says the owner smiling wide.
All the shelves can no longer bare,
Jars full different marks.
Exclamation here! A comma there,

Inverted commas „” Dash – Semicolon; Period.
Oh! Two men are coming in.
– We’d like inverted commas „”, please
There great for suddenly jotting in

A funny proverb for a tease.
Next comes a girl in a tiny vest,
Fluttering her curvy lashes,
– Tomorrow I have a test

So let me have there – – –
Then a general jumped the queue
Without any explanations.
– I have lots work to do

Wrap me quick two kilo of!!!
Two old vendors from the market
Burst in shouting
Give us: : : and , , ,

So we can do our counting.
A group of students followed on,
On their way to catch the trams,
Each bought a:

And ran to write their exams.
The owner gave out many packs
Full of punctuation marks,
But before taking off his specks

Noticed some lonely???
And then with great grace
He placed them in my mouth.
So I asked: – What’s this place?

Silence – A true? No doubt.
Why is it dark and can’t quite see?
Where is the owner with his marks?
Where is the Shop? What happened to me?

I do not know. Sorry.
Maybe I’m not all that fine?
Maybe it’s the secret of the dark?
The marks, the shop and the sign –

. ! ? [Period. Exclamations Mark! Questions Mark?]