18/07/2024 - Maks Rzontkowski’s comedic approach to this short puts an end to our misunderstanding of people-pleasing once and for all

“Martyrdom comes with no days off”: that is the title of one of the five chapters of the short film Martyr’s Guidebook, directed by Polish animator Maks Rzontkowski. Part of Sundance’s official 2024 selection, Rzontkowski’s film is one of the stand-outs at Fest Anča’s International Competition of Shorts. As the title suggests, pleasing others can become a self-loathing, guilt-ridden job: letting anyone down is not an option, for fear of compromising our public image. Selflessness might be an act of love, but sometimes it derives from being overly self-conscious.

Tony is an elementary school student celebrating his teacher’s birthday with his classmates. For the occasion, the teacher offers carrot cake to the students. Our protagonist cuts himself just a little slice, while his peers barge in to devour the birthday treat. Tony’s act of apparent generosity and humility is praised by his teacher, resulting in collective applause. Although seemingly a heart-warming childhood memory, this event scars Tony for life. He is now doomed to please others in order to maintain the positive ideal they have of him.

All grown up, Tony lives with a scary-looking angel - a powerful, demon-like entity. The relationship is toxic, as Tony seems to never be enough for his demanding flatmate. If Tony would like to see an “insightful” arthouse film, as the angel puts it, he’s obliged by his flatmate to watch Riverdale non-stop, because “overthinking is dangerous”. Or when he needs to go grocery shopping, he ends up spending the day helping a lost tourist. Here, the figurative meaning of the angel entity is open to interpretation. Perhaps he’s a personification of his own messed up conscience, like a creepy and unsettling Jiminy Cricket. Or he’s a persistent reminder of Tony’s constant martyrdom and his good public reputation. Tony’s selflessness comes to his detriment, as his obsession with being a “good person” deprives him of care and regard for himself.

Finally, one day, following a romantic rejection, his attentive martyr lifestyle backfires, and Tony must face his fears. His sacrifices and the inability to say no don’t exactly result in a positive reaction.

Thanks to the film’s technical aspects, the depiction of being a helpless people pleaser convincingly plays out. The saturated animation is constantly out of focus and proportion, which fits the storyline and its meaning. The low-res computer-generated images are chaotic, messy and sometimes unnerving, just like Tony’s life. The disorganised nature of Martyr’s Guidebook gives form to an original post-digital world, where everyone seems like video game characters without joystick controls.

This short film’s forte, however, is its effortless comedy. Rzontkowski’s world comes to life through the realistic portrayal of human quirks and paradoxes. His style is intentionally awkward, both technically and in terms of screenwriting, but these communication missteps are the key ingredient to depicting human ineptitude. Thriving on abstract audaciousness, Martyr’s Guidebook dares us to face and rethink our self-perception with the right amount of wit.