Gdańsk – A City Captured in Amber

A Fairy Tale about Baryłka the Dwarf Who Brings Old Gdańsk to Life

When the tourist season comes to an end and the streets of Gdańsk slowly grow quiet, a small dwarf named Baryłka goes out for an evening walk. In his hands he carries a small pouch filled with amber dust.

As he sprinkles it over the cobbled streets and the old façades of the townhouses, the city begins to change. For a brief moment, old Gdańsk comes back to life. Merchants and townspeople appear in the streets, sailors move about in the harbour, and the sounds of a Hanseatic port from centuries past seem to return to the banks of the Motława River.

This short film, created by me, is a fairy-tale story about Gdańsk – a city where history still hides in the walls of its townhouses, in the scent of the sea, and in the legends of the Baltic coast.