POLISH FILM MAGAZINE2|2016

Marie Noëlle has chemistry with Marie Curie

What Paweł Pawlikowski writes in his bathtub

Oh captain, my Red Captain

International co-productions are the next stage in the development of the European audiovisual market – not only from the standpoint of cultural economics, but also with regards to strengthening the relations within our community by creating polyphonic ac-counts of our shared history. This has resulted in European films becom-ing increasingly diverse and nuanced. While a co-production may require

Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Locarno – Poland is there, be it with films, talents or film professionals, always ready to take on new international pro-jects. Ever since Tomasz Wasilewski won a Silver Bear for his United States of Love, Poland has been hungry for more, and the number of acclaimed international producers interested in working with our country has been steadily increasing. Some exciting

more effort at the production stage, I believe that its benefits make this investment worthwhile.

Earlier this year, the Polish Film Institute introduced a sep-arate envelope for minority co-productions. Eight of the 16 projects that were submitted have been approved by our expert commission – a strong indication of their high quality. I welcome these projects with joy and have faith in their success. Minor-ity co-productions supported by the Polish Film Institute, such as Agnus Dei by Anne Fontaine and I, Olga Hepnarova by Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda premiered at the world’s most renowned film festivals in 2016. Last year’s Cannes Festival lineup featured two co-productions supported by the Polish Film Institute and directed by first-time filmmakers: Magnus von Horn’s The Here After and Julia Kowalski’s Crache-Cæur .

I’m glad that Polish producers are opening up to international cooperation. I encourage you to explore the opportunities Poland has to offer, not only as an excellent location base and source of film services. I can assure you that there is no shortage of eager, well-trained, hard-working Polish producers ready to contribute creatively to the filmmaking process. The Polish Film Institute distributes funds in three application sessions per year, with fi-nancing available for each stage of production. We encourage you to submit your projects.

Magdalena Sroka General Director of the Polish Film Institute

news is expected later this year. You can get a sneak preview of the future of Polish cinema

in Locarno. The festival features Spotlight on Poland, which presents the most interesting works-in-progress in the First Look 2016 program.

There will be special screenings of A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love at the Cannes festival to commemo-rate our great director, Krzysztof Kieślowski, who sadly passed on 20 years ago. We asked his close collaborators, including Marin Karmitz and Agnieszka Holland, to tell us about his impact on European cinema (see page 10).

We would also like to applaud two young Polish talents, who have every chance of shaping the European cinema of tomorrow: our Producer on the Move at Cannes, Klaudia Śmieja (see page 12); and Oscar-nominated DoP Łukasz Żal (page 18).

We also take a closer look at the brilliant thriller The Red Captain, a joint effort on the part of Polish, Czech and Slovak producers (see page 22). And last, but by no means least, we en-courage you to read our cover story about a modern take on Marie Curie, a Polish-German-Belgium-French coproduction, directed by Marie Noëlle (see page 14). This project is a perfect example how a common past can inspire a common future.

And we are, as always, ready for more.

Tomasz DąbrowskiHead of Film Commission Poland

CONTENTSEditorial 1Production news 2Paweł Pawlikowski 6

CANNES 2016

The Decalogue 8Klaudia Śmieja

- a Producer on the Move 12

TALENTSMarie Noëlle 14Łukasz Żal 18Loving Vincent 20The Red Captain 22DI Factory 24Jacek Bromski 26

MONEY BANKGet financed in Poland 28Box office 30Key Polish Film Festivals 31

LOCATE&SHOOTBattlefield: Poland 32Come and sea 36

REMAINS OF THE DAYFinding Mr and Ms Right 38Daydreaming Youth 40

Publisher: Film Commission Poland (Tomasz Dąbrowski, Anna E. Dziedzic, Dana Pohl). Contact details: ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 7, 00-068 Warsaw, Poland. email: office@filmcommissionpoland.pl

Editor-in-chief: Ola Salwa. Writers: Piotr Bartuszek, Anna Bielak, Michael Brooke, Carmen Gray, Darek Kuźma, Urszula Lipińska. Graphic Designer: Anna Myśluk. Layout Designer: Marcin Kiedio. Photo Editor: Marcin Kapica. Translation: Tomasz Duda. English Editor: Steve Canty.

Special thanks: Robert Baliński, Marzena Cieślik, Olga Domżała, Rafał Jankowski, Izabela Kiszka-Hoflik of Polish Film Institute and Mikołaj Pokromski from Pokromski Studio.

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PFM 2|2016 1EDITORIAL

PFM 2|20162 PFM 2|2016 3NEWS

Balkan prophet Baba Vanga coming to the big screen

This film, written and directed by Aleksandra Niemczyk, is a joint effort between Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Norway. It follows the life and visions of Baba Vanga, who pre-dicted the future of the world up to its end in the year 5079. Some of her predictions have come to pass, some haven’t. As for the rest, time will tell. Niemczyk studied at Bela Tarr’s film.factory academy in Sarajevo. The film is produced by Marta Habior and Marta Lewandowska from No Sugar Films (Poland) and co-produced by Niemczyk and Emina Ganic from Sarajevo Film Academy (film.factory). The film was completed in May 2016 and ie festival premiere in the coming months. World sales is available.

Polish-Dutch I Am Lying Now starts shooting in May

“Whatever you think, you are wrong” serves as the motto for Paweł Borowski’s second feature film, described as a metaphysical thriller with a retro-futuristic aesthetic. Borowski’s debut film Zero was shown at numerous festivals,

including Busan, São Pau-lo, Rotterdam, Washington, Munich, and Milan. The film gained critical acclaim and won five Grand Prix. The Pol-ish writer/director is a member of EFA, and was named by Twitchfilm.com as one of 7 directors to watch. I Am Lying Now is being produced by Łukasz Dzięcioł through Opus Film (Poland), and co-pro-duced by Sander Verdonk

Urszula Antoniak tells a story Beyond Words

This Polish-Dutch-German film follows an aspiring Berlin lawyer. He is a Polish emigrant, who, like Witold Gombro-wicz, sees emigration not as a tragedy, but as an opportu-nity to reinvent himself. “His life is not so much about national identity - he feels like a Berliner - but more about the constant interplay between mimicry and being yourself. After spending a weekend with his distant Polish father, he starts to miss not only him,

Monika Lenczewska is Variety’s 10 cinemato-graphers to watch!The Polish-born DoP and AFI graduate has already worked on international proj-ects e.g. Imperial Dreams (dir. Malik Vitthal) and Difret (dir. Zeresenay Mehari). Both films were shown at Sun-dance, where Lenczewska was nominated for Cinematogra-phy Award (for Difret). “Rec-ognition stimulates to trust our own instincts and reassure that we are following the right path” says Lenczewska. She is currently working on Under the Tree (dir. Hafsteinn Gun-nar Sigurdsson), produced by Rams’s Netop Films (Iceland) and Madants Ltd (Poland).

MAŁGORZATA SZUMOWSKA started shooting her new film Face in April. The crew will be working in Warsaw, Kraków and Małopolska region in southern Poland. Face is expected to premiere in 2017.

from the New Amsterdam Film Company. The budget is approx. 1.5 mln EUR, with a 690 000 EUR subsidy from the Polish Film Institute. The film has also received support from the Silesia Film Commis-sion. Shooting starts in Poland at the end of May, and then moves on to The Netherlands. I Am Lying Now is expected to premiere in 2017. World sales is available.

spectacular fantasy. Shooting starts in southern Poland in mid-May. The crew will be working in Silesia and Lower Silesia to take advantage of some of Poland’s most impres-sive locations, e.g. Książ Castle, the fortified Czocha Castle, the baroque Lubiąż Abbey, the classical Pszczyna Castle, and the Neo-Baroque Dietel Palace in Sosnowiec. In the following months, the crew will move to Utah (USA) and Italy. The film is being produced by Lech Majewski, through his compa-ny, Angelus Silesius, and Filip Rymsza from Royal Road En-tertainment in Los Angeles. The co-producers are Peter Safran from The Safran Company, Jan Harlan, and Tumult Founda-tion. The executive producer in Poland is Domino Film. Valley of the Gods received a grant of approx. 1.4 mln EUR from the Polish Film Institute. The film is also supported by the Silesian Film Fund, the Lower Silesian Film Competition, and Royal Road Entertainment. The film is set to premiere in 2017. World sales is underway.

STAR-STUDDED ADULT FANTASY FILM BY POLISH DIRECTOR LECH MAJEWSKI

The Valley of the Gods cast comprises Charlotte Rampling, Josh Hartnett, John Rhys-Da-vis, Bérénice Marlohe, and Keir Dullea. The story was inspired by a Navajo legend, and follows John Ecas (Hartnett), who possesses an unbridled imagination and has the ability to alter reality. This launches the narrative into the realm of

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but also a sense of having put down roots in life,” explains director Urszula Antoniak, who also wrote the script. Her feature-length debut, Nothing Personal, with Stephen Rea, won her six awards in Locarno. Her second feature, Code Blue, was selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and her third, Nude Area, was a visual poem with-out words. Antoniak is also a screenwriter. Planet Single, a romantic comedy based on a story she wrote, was a commercial hit in Poland in 2016, and Life According

To Nino, a children’s film she wrote, won the Golden Lion at the Cinekid Festival in 2014. Beyond Words stars Jakub Gierszał (Suicide Room, Lasting) and Andrzej Chyra (In the Name Of, Crache Coeur) from Poland. The film is being produced by Piotr Dzięcioł through Opus Film and co-produced by Family Affair Films (Netherlands), and NiKo Film (Germany). Shoot-ing starts in July and the film is expected to do the rounds of the festivals in the spring of 2017. World sales: Global Screen GmbH.

The director of Lasting and All that I Love, is currently working on his new feature titled Volterra. Script is being co-written by the acclaimed Polish writer, Szczepan Twardoch. “It’s a story of a female poet and Nobel Prize laureate, who makes an am-biguous attempt to confront the refugee crisis in Europe” says the director. Krystyna Janda (who won an award for The Best Actress in Cannes in 1990), is announced to take the lead role in a film. The entire film will be shoot in Tuscany, Italy. Production will be handled by No Sugar Films (Poland) and Motion Group (Italy). The project’s in late development and will start financing shortly.

Jacek Borcuch developing a Polish--Italian project

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TITLE DIRECTOR POLISH PRODUCER SUBSIDY IN EUR

Under the tree Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson

Mandants Sp. z o.o. 187 800

Tiere - Zwierzęta Greg Zgliński Opus Film Sp. z o.o 152 582

Family for Sale Diego Lerman Staron Film Sp. z o.o. 93 900

Foam at the Mouth Janis Nords Pepercut Joanna Kołacz-Śmieja

82 160

The Harvesters Etienne Kallos LAVA FILMS Sp. z o.o. 58 690

NEWS

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Lithuanian-Polish Crisis set for 2016 release

Lithuanian-Polish-Bulgarian Miracle wrapped

its include Russian, German and American films (e.g. Salt with Angelina Jolie). The film is being produced by Lukas Trimonis through In Script (Lithuania) and co-produced by Magdalena Zimecka and Radosława Bardes from Orka Studio (Poland), and Paulina Jeleva from Geopoly Film (Bulgaria). The budget is approx. 800 000 EUR and includes grants from Lithua-nia Film Centre (approx. 274 000 EUR), Bulgarian Film Centre (approx. 160 000 EURO), Eurimage (100 000 EUR) and Media Program (15 314 EUR). The producers are currently look-ing for additional finance and world sales. Miracle is expect-ed to premiere in early 2017.

Diego Lerman new film starts shooting with Polish DoP

Family for sale is a joint effort between Campo Cine (Argenti-na), Staron-Film (Poland) and Bellota Films (France). The story follows a middle-class doctor, Malena (Erica Rivas) who wants to adopt a newborn from a poor family living in the North of Argentina, after losing her child. The film is lensed by Wojciech Staroń, who won a Silver Bear at Ber-linale for El Premio (dir. Paula Markovitch). Family for Sale was supported by the PFI with approx. 93 900 EUR) and Aide aux Cinemas du Monde. It’s expected to start its festival tour in early 2017. World sales is underway.

Agnieszka Holland Polish-German project

The script, written by Andrea Serdaru-Barbul, follows the titular Gareth Jones, a real-life British investigative journalist as he ventures inside the USSR to uncover an international conspiracy and expose the Holodomor, Stalin’s genocid-al famine in Ukraine. In her director’s statement, Holland called this film “incredibly valid today, when Ukraine is fighting a war provoked by Stalin’s successors”. Gareth Jones producers are Klaudia Śmieja and Stanisław Dziedzic from Film Produkcja (Poland) and Titus Kreyenberg from unafilm (Germany). The project already has a grant of 700 000 EUR from the PFI. Shooting should start in 2017. World sales is available.

The storyline based on real events, follows American Holocaust Professor Deborah Lipstadt (Weisz) trial when she sued for libel by British historian David Irving, for calling him a Holocaust denier. The script was penned by Oscar-nominated writer David Hare (The Hours, The Reader) and directed by Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin). The cast includes Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall and Andrew Scott. Denial is produced by Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff (Krasnoff/Foster Entertain-ment), along with Shoebox Films and Participant Media (Bridge of Spies, The Help,

Lincoln). Production began in December, and the film was shot on location in Poland, London and Atlanta. Produc-tion in Poland was handled by Marta Habior from No Sugar Films. The crew was also supported by the Krakow Film Commission. “It’s a special experience for the cast and crew to be filming in Kraków, Poland. We’re excited to be working with a first class international crew of British and Polish filmmakers. We’re grateful for the Krakow Film Commission’s support, and are looking forward to a suc-cessful shoot,” say Foster and Russ.

Latvian-Polish-Lithuanian Foam at the Mouth nearly finished

Foam at the Mouth is a psychological drama mixed with horror. It is about a police dog trainer struggling with marital problems and trying to come to terms with his past. The film is directed by Jānis Nords, who won the Grand Prix in the Gen-eration Plus section at the 2013 Berlinale for Mother, I Love You. The film is being produced by Tasse Film (Latvia). The Polish co-producers are Klau-dia Śmieja and Beata Rzeźniczek from Madants. The Polish talent list includes editor Agniesz-ka Glińska and make-up artist Agnieszka Hodowana. Polish outlet Orka prepared the post-production and visual effects. The film has received a subsidy from the Polish Film Institute. Foam at the Mouth is expected to premiere in the winter of 2017 and is currently look-ing for a sales agent.

Rachel Weisz’s Denial shot in Kraków

The lives of the owners of a nationalized pig farm in a tiny post-Communist town are turned upside-down when a handsome American arrives, apparently to save the strug-gling factory. But as Irena, the owner, begins to fall for his charms she realizes that his intentions may not be what he claims. Miracle is a mixture of tragicomedy and magic real-ism with a hint of the absurd. The film stars Vyto Ruginis (The Devil’s Advocate, Money-ball) and Polish star Daniel Olbrychski. Olbrychski has been working on international projects for decades. His cred-

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Films that have received a support from the Polish Film Institute’s minority co-production scheme (session 1/2016)

Crisis is a drama about 30-year-old Vytas, who lives a quiet life in a small town in Lithuania. When he is suddenly fired from his job, he has to hide it from his family while he looks for another. The film is directed

by Andrius Blaževicius, and produced by Marija Razgute, from Ciobreliai (Lithua-nia), and co-produced by Marta Lewandowska, Marta Habior from Poland-based No Sugar Films. The world sales is open.

WHAT’S NEW?Oscar-winning director Paweł Pawlikowski talks about his new project, his creative process, and why he likes to work in the bathtub

Your upcoming film is about…An impossible love.

What are the origins of the story? Is it based on actual events?The characters are inspired by people who were close to me, but it’s not based on anything that happened liter-ally. I’ve been thinking about this story for over 10 years, writing a new version every few years, and then putting it aside. Finally, last year, I felt that I was ready to move forward with the story and film it.

Do you have any funds from Western Europe?We’re hoping to raise some money in the UK and France, but our main source will be the British Film Institute and the Polish Film Institute. So fingers crossed there’s no political interference. Ida was absolutely hated by the people who are in government in Poland, and they’re taking over all institutions in the country at a hair- rais-ing speed.

Isn’t it easier to raise money after an Oscar?It would be if I were making an English or French lan-guage film. For Polish-language speaking films with ac-tors unknown to an international audience, it’s the same old problem.

So what’s changed after winning an Oscar?I get sent a lot of scripts and offered projects with stars, but as I want to make a film in Polish, with Polish actors, that’s not much use to me.

Polish actors or also non-actors like Agata Trzebu-chowska, who played the role of the eponymous Ida?Honestly, I don’t know. We’re looking for actors every-where we can. We’re open to non-actors as well. Casting for this film is challenging - it’s all centered on two characters, who change and age during the film.

When you’re not directing, you’re teaching at the Wa-jda School in Warsaw. What would you say is the most valuable career advice for aspiring filmmakers?I’ve no idea. I suppose they should have something to say and a strong urge to say it, and maybe also to have a lived a bit.

Do you still have the urge?I don’t have it all the time, so I don’t make films that often.

What do you do in the meantime?I write. I usually work on three stories at the same time. I keep writing and re-writing them until one of the stories sticks and becomes the one I want to film. I also teach and live a life. I’ve noticed that the things that happen to me in those gaps between films - chance en-counters, loves, deaths, children, books, journeys, polit-ical upheavals - they all feed into the stories and change their sensibility, so the time is never wasted. Time is the great sculptor. I know true artists are supposed to be completely focused on their work and lead a minimal life around it. I’m definitely not one of those.

Where do you write?I usually take my laptop to bed, turn on some music, and scribble things down. Sometimes, I work in a cafe or on a train. I’ve noticed that most interesting things occur to me when I am not at the desk, which stresses me out. I love working in the bathtub, if you can call that work.

Without the laptop, I hope.Quite. I print the pages I’m working on and jot things down on wet pages. But it’s important to have a writing partner to knock things around with and raise the game. It can get lonely on your own. Anyway, the real writing is the whole film-making process, when the whole team and the actors get involved. And the only script that matters is what ends up on the screen.

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A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING

A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE

My background as a lawyer lay at the core of this film. I was a prom-ising attorney, who had handled a lot of complicated, unprecedented cases. At the same time, I was expe-riencing terrible moral and ethical doubts, asking myself questions that I couldn’t answer. We wanted to write those dillemas into the script. I still remember some of the advice that I gave Kieślowski. The first

piece of advice was about the visual aspect of the film. In court files, crime scenes were always portrayed as dirty, grey and faded, in a stark contrast to the way they were shown in cinema in those days. He adapted my observation to the film and gave it a very specific, drab look. I told him that there is always a big drama being played out in courtroom and that everyone has a role to play.

Staging it in front of the camera would double the impression of falseness. So he skipped the moment of passing the sentencing of the main character and focused more on him in prison; his demons, his past and his feelings. We wanted this film to rattle people and torment them with questions. And if there are still places where capital punishment exists, then somehow we failed.

In A Short Film About Love we want-ed to bring out the clash between Tomek’s immaturity and the extremely self-conscious behavior of Magdalena. They live in two completely different worlds. And only his tragic faith let her notice the otherness of his reality, which she had previously ignored. While working on this film we talked a lot about various things - love, family, life. Through those discussions we realized that we wanted to make a film that predicted the future. The future of widespread exhibi-tionism and voyerism. Time has shown that we were right.

Today people have nothing to hide.

KRZYSZTOF PIESIEWICZ was young and ambitious laywer when he met Krzysztof Kieślowski in the early 1980s. They ended up writing screenplays together for the next decade. This is what he recalls about two installments of the Dekalog (The Decalogue) series being screened in the Cannes Classics section this year.

1, 2 A Short Film About Killing starred Mirosław Baka as Jacek (the young killer) and Krzysztof Globisz (as his lawyer)

3 Grażyna Szapołowska as Magdalena in A Short Film About Love, her onscreen partner was played by Olaf Lubaszenko

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“I believe the life of every person is worthy of scrutiny, containing its own secrets and dramas.” Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996)

FILM SERIES THAT COUNTS

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Michael Brooke

When Krzysztof Kieślowski began work on The Decalogue in the mid-1980s, he already had a reputation outside Poland, at least in art-film circles. Thanks to internation-al interest in the “cinema of moral anxiety” movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was often cited as one of the more promising of the younger Polish film-makers. So when Kieślowski and his co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz began writing The Decalogue, it seemed logical to create a cinema spin-off. There were precedents: Ing-mar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot (1981) all began as television series that were reduced to roughly half their length for screening in cinemas. By contrast, Kieślowski and Piesiewicz expanded two episodes for the big screen.

The first was A Short Film About Killing (1988), from Decalogue V, which had its international premiere in the main Cannes Film Festival competition in May 1988,

winning the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI internation-al critics’ prize. Perhaps, thanks to the universality of its theme, it attracted noticeably more attention than Kieślowski’s earlier films, and was celebrated as one of the most powerful Polish films to have emerged since December 1981’s martial-law crackdown. It went on to pick up many other awards, including the very first Felix Award for the best European film of the year.

That autumn, A Short Film About Love, the extended version of Decalogue VI, premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival, winning the first of many festival prizes. By this stage, there was such a buzz about the films that the 1989 Cannes Film Festival included sold-out screenings of three of the television episodes, I, IX and X. In September 1989, the Venice Film Festival staged the world premiere of the complete The Decalogue, where it was greeted not just as an outstanding television series, but as one of the great achievements of world cinema. As a result, it was

*MICHAEL BROOKE is a freelance writer specializing in British and Cen-tral-Eastern Eu-ropean cinema. He has been a regular contrib-utor to Sight and Sound for more than a decade.

AGNIESZKA HOLLANDDirector (she consulted scripts for Trois Couleurs trilogy)

Krzysztof was a moralist. He had a very serious approach to the obli-gations resulting from his non-seri-ous profession of film director. He really walked the talk, doing what he would tell his students: the decision where to put the cam-era is a moral choice, not merely an artistic one. Back in the days when Krzysztof’s films were made, the people watching them felt his respect and the attention he treated them with, and they do so now: they realise that the point isn’t only (or even mainly) to produce beautiful images and interesting stories, but that it’s about us, our human problems, suffering and joy. It’s about our impossible choices and our flawed spirituality.

SŁAWOMIR IDZIAK Cinematographer (A Short Film About Killing, Trois Couleurs: Bleu, La Double Vie de Veronique)

To my mind what set him apart from other filmmakers was his courage. But he wasn’t possesed of the bravary of a visionary film-maker completely devoted to his own independent choices. Although Kieślowski always followed his intu-ition, he was also the first one to question his own decisions and try something completely different. But he never did so without a safety net, because his courage was tem-pered by knowledge and diligence. We worked together many times

- and each time was a wonderful journey into the unknown. I get the impression that he started working on a film where other directors finished : in the editing room.

BUZZ ABOUT THE DECALOGUEBritish film critic Michael Brooke* examines the international success of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s series

sold to many countries which would not normally have expressed any interest in Polish television series.

What was even more remarkable was that the complete series was also given cinema distribution in several countries. In my native Britain, it went straight to television, but it was none-theless treated as a major cultural event, with an hour-long documentary about Kieślowski being screened in the BBC’s prestigious Arena arts magazine programme before transmission of the complete series. After his next feature, The Double Life of Veronique (1991), became a huge arthouse hit, The Decalogue finally opened in British cinemas. By the end of the 1990s, it had also been screened in the US.

This wasn’t totally unprecedented: Edgar Reitz’s eleven-part television series Heimat (1984) also premiered in Venice and was given a cinema release in its complete form in several countries

before being shown on television. However, Heimat had automatic international interest, as it spanned the years 1919-82 and offered an unprecedentedly intimate portrait of the effect of very familiar events in twentieth-century Germany history on ordinary people. But The Decalogue lacked this historical/po-

litical interest – whereas Kieślowski’s earlier films tended to have strongly political subject matter, with The Decalogue he conscious-ly abandoned this for more universally human concerns.

MARIN KARMITZProducer (Trois Couleurs trilogy)

I produced films of many great di-rectors of my generation, but to be honest, with Krzysztof Kieślows-ki’s I had most of the fun doing it. What impressed me the most was his respect for the crew, his hu-manity and ethical rigour. I always admired how carefully he spoke, thinking about weight of each word. I met him by chance, while he was visiting Paris. His agent organized a meeting. Kieślowski came to my house, along with the translator and we spent the entire afternoon talking about cinema, philosophy, literature. After a few hours, I asked him what movie he wanted to make. He said Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; 3 films; 3 colors. I just asked: „When can we start?”.

So when Kieślowski and his co-writer Krzysztof Piesiew-icz began writing The Decalogue, it seemed logical to create a cinema spin-off.

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2 MARCIN WIERZCHOSŁAWSKI Metro Films

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Śmieja’s path to co-producing internationally recognized films has taken her through virtually every stage of production. It all began with her passion for cinema and economy. One day, she just connected the dots. After she finished studying history of cinema and film production at the University of Silesia, she worked as location manager on Christopher Doyle’s Warsaw Dark (2011), as a production coordinator on the set of Michel Glawogger’s Contact High (2009), and location manager for Giacomo Battiato’s Resolution 819 (2008) and Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (2015). What she remembers most about the last set is the constant lack of sleep, especially at the end of shooting. Not that Śmieja sleeps much anyway. “I just love my job and I can’t stop working. I have a specific way of going about it. I go to bed very early and get up in the middle of the night, as that’s when I most like to work”.

In 2014 she established Filmokracja a small produc-tion outlet with Bartek Prokopowicz and Katarzyna Sarnowska and was responsible for the its first project, Chemo (directed by Bartek Prokopowicz). And while looking for a French co-producer, she also found a new professional goal – she wanted to work on international projects.

The next film she worked on (through company Aero-plan Film) - Agnus Dei by Anne Fontaine - was the most challenging and demanding so far. “Although only 20% of the budget came from Poland, all the shooting took place there, and the crew, technicians, and most of the cast were Polish,” says Śmieja. The film had its premiere at Sundance this year. Less than a month later, another Śmieja co-production was screened, this time as a part

AVOIDING THE LIMITSThis year has already been a good one for Klaudia Śmieja. Her co-productions have premiered at Sundance and Berlinale. Śmieja, who has already worked for Steven Spielberg joins Producers on the Move in Cannes

of the Berlinale Forum. Illegitimate by Adrian Sitaru, a joint effort with Romanian Domestic Films, took out the CICAE Award.

“I like to work at the international level, because it allows me to avoid the artistic and financial limits of the local market. It’s much more ‘open’ to be able to exchange experiences, explore interesting subjects, meet creative people from all over the world, and have the opportunity to travel”, explains the producer, who states that she has only just set out on her journey.

“The first projects let me confront myself, and see whether I could take responsibility and risk. After that, the stress disappeared, but the adrenaline and the need for something new remained. And that’s is what I like about producing – each time is like the first time”.

Dreams are coming true In summer 2015 Śmieja’s founded the company Madants Ltd with Beata Rzeźniczek. They aim to pro-duce unique, original feature and documentary films.

“Among the factors that draw my attention to a particu-lar project, I would mention the subject of the film, the script, and the previous work of the director and lead producer”, she claims. Śmieja has already established

In 2015 Rams, a film co-produced by Klaudia Śmieja was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Cer-tain Regard Prize

a few long-distance col-laborations. One of them is with Greek producer Amanda Livanou. “We’ve just made Sofia Exar-chou’s Park and are now preparing Pity by Babis Makridis. Meanwhile, I’m working on another feature film with Netop Films from Iceland. This

follows on from our joint effort, Grímur Hakonárson’s Rams”, she says. Her other current projects include Un-der the tree by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and Foam at the Mouth, a thriller directed by Jānis Nords. Moreo-ver, she is also about to make her lead producer debut with Agnieszka Holland’s Gareth Jones. It was Śmieja with her partners who offered Holland the director’s chair after reading the script by Andreia Serdaru-Bar-bul. Her dream-director? “I’m working with one of them right now.”

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was an unacceptable situation according to the mores of the time. It became an enormous scandal in France, where the press called Marie a vilain, a whore, and all other sorts of other hurtful epithets. As long as she was successful, she was considered French, but when the scandal broke, she became “Polish”, and “Jewish”, even though she wasn’t Jewish. It was all very reminiscent of the tone the press took during the Dreyfus affair. Appall-ingly, Curie took all the blame for the affair. Langevin was portrayed as her victim. Men are allowed to have af-fairs, but women can’t have, or can’t show, feelings. The scandal was so great that the Nobel Committee wanted her to give back the second Nobel Prize that she had just been awarded. This story scandalized me so much that I decided it was high time another kind of film about Marie Curie was made. We talk a lot about gender issues these days. Women think they’re free, but not much has really changed. We have to keep fighting for equal oppor-tunities in a world that is still mostly dominated by men.

So Marie Curie’s story is still relevant?Women are just as talented in mathematics and research as men. The number of female and male students is pretty much the same at university, but there’s a huge gap a few years later. Only a very small percentage of women choose science as a career. The same happens in economics, politics etc. – and even filmmaking. This is the group I want to reach with my film – talented, young women, who need to believe in themselves to go further with their skills, and who could also use Marie Curie as a role model.

A BEAUTIFUL MINDShe worked hard all her life to better understand the origins of life, but did not subscribe to conventions, and educated her daughters to be free women like her, says Marie Noëlle who directed this Polish-French-

-German-Belgium film about Marie Curie

Working in a research lab, and discovering new chem-ical elements is just part of the Marie Curie story. You also show her private life.The film starts with Marie and Pierre Curie travelling to Stockholm to receive their first Nobel Prize. Pierre dies in a car accident a few months later. The 35-year-old Marie is left with two young daughters. After the death of her beloved husband, she wrote a diary for him, addressing him almost every day for the next two years, as if he was still alive. I consulted this diary during my research for the screenplay and was deeply moved by Marie’s grief.

Karolina Gruszka (left)with her director Marie Noëlle (right)

Marie Curie (Karolina Gruszka) in her laboratory

Ola SalwaAbout the production: I’ve known Marie Noëlle for a long time. I’d ac-tually met her husband, Peter Sehr, even before I met her. Peter was the one who persuaded me to keep working in the film industry when I wanted to leave it. At the time, I’d been working for a year in consult-ing, where I was suffocating. Peter invited me to participate in Atelier/Masterclass, a two-year program for producers who wanted to work on international co-productions. We stayed in touch over the years, while I started co-producing films with German companies, mainly from Munich, where Marie’s and Peter’s company P’Artisan Filmproduktion is based. We’d discussed the Marie Curie project for years, so in a way, it was only natural that they chose my company, all the more so since we’d previously participated in prepar-ing a project for a Polish film about

Marie Curie, which in the end wasn’t made.

About Poland as a partner: Po-land offers competitive film service prices, and on top of that, you can apply for funding from the Pol-ish Film Institute and the Regional Film Funds. The subsidies are rather small at the moment, so they’re mainly used for arthouse projects, rather than big-budget productions. We haven’t managed to introduce fi-nancial incentives yet, but once this happens, our position will be greatly strengthened. We also have an excel-lent talent base, except for a couple of departments that might not have been in Poland long enough yet. We can offer some great and diversified locations - our mountains, a lake district with forests, and the sea. My experience confirms this, since I’ve been able to shoot different parts of

the world, from Russia to Morocco, right here. There are also some splendid castles and other historic monuments we can use here.

About the cameo: I don’t know what my character’s name is, but he’s one of the professors who attended the Solvay Conference. I gave him the working name of Willy Wonka. Other cameos in these scenes include the German producer and some crew members. These were supposed to be presents. At the end, we had a souvenir photo taken, as the equiv-alent of the picture of the profes-sors during the actual Conference. The original one had been taken on a porch in Normandy, while our film was shot on location on the beach in Łeba, a Polish seaside resort.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie or simply, Marie Curie, is a well-known historical figure. Several films have already been made about her, including a 1943 Hol-lywood production with Greer Garson in the title role. Why did you want to make a film about her?It’s a long story, but I’ll try to make it short. I’ve known about Marie Curie since I was 12 years old. My godmoth-er gave me her biography and Marie Curie became a role model for me. Like her, I wanted to discover something useful for humanity. That’s why I studied mathemat-ics. The other childhood connection I had with Poland was Chopin. My mother loved him, so I had to play the piano. But to get back to Marie Curie, all the films about her tell the story of the scientific genius. We know a lot about her career, but very little about the woman behind the icon. About eight years ago, I read an article about the “Langevin scandal” in which she was involved. Until then, I hadn’t heard that Marie fell in love with Paul Langevin, a renowned French scientist, family friend, and former PhD student of Pierre Curie, in 1910. I, who thought I knew everything about Marie’s work and pri-vate life. Marie was widowed, but Paul was married. This

MIKOŁAJ POKROMSKI Polish producer of the film

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Marie’s passion for science helped her overcome it. She was a great humanist who believed research would benefit the world. She worked hard all her life to better understand the origins of life, but did not subscribe to conventions, and educated her daughters to be free women like her. She was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate, the first to receive a Nobel Prize, the first female professor, the first to receive a second Nobel Prize etc., but she never sought publicity for herself and was very humble and generous. She felt that if you’ve been given a talent, then you have a duty to dedicate your life to giving it back in the form of progress for everybody. Marie Curie was no saint but she is now more than ever a good example for young people growing up in a privileged society where money and fame count for everything.

Marie Curie was both Polish and French. Was it always your intention to work with Poland on this project?Yes, of course. I wanted to do a movie that helps people better understand this world renowned icon of scientific research. And if you want to show the “private” Marie Curie, you have to take into account that she was Polish. Both Peter Sehr and I always stood for an authentic cinema that investigated the many facets of the human soul and encouraged European exchanges as part of our cultural identity. For me, it was obvious that I had to come to Poland, and visit all the places associated with Curie, and see all the landscapes she liked, in order to become as familiar as possible with her character. After discovering the great beauty of Poland, I could see I was going to find and use a lot of locations in her homeland. I felt that this would be the soul of the movie. I also knew from the outset that my long-standing collabora-tion with Waldemar Pokromski was going to continue. So it was perfectly natural to develop the project with Pokromski Studios and the producer Mikolaj Pokromski. After my first scouting trip, we decided to shoot a big part of the movie in Poland. In the end, even the interi-ors of the Sorbonne University were shot in Poland.

I knew that I’d found my Marie Curie. The only thing I was worried about was whether her French would be good enough, because I didn’t want to use dubbing. Luckily, her French was parfait. And Waldemar Pokroms-ki took care of the red hair with his usual magical skills.

Karolina Gruszka is supported by Izabela Kuna, one of Poland’s top actresses. Kuna plays Curie’s sister Bronia, and Daniel Olbrychski is her “enemy”, Émile Amagat.Izabela Kuna was the first actress I met when my Polish co-producer, Mikołaj Pokromski, set up a small cast-ing round in Warsaw. Izabela convinced me right away. I found her perfect for the part of Bronia, Marie’s sister. Daniel Olbrychski is another thing. I have a warm regard for him, because he acted in the first film I ever worked on as an assistant, a French film with Nathalie Baye, produced by ARTE. It was really nice to be able to work with him again.

Most of the crew is Polish as well, so it really was an international set.All the films I’ve made have been international co-pro-ductions, so I’m very experienced in working with

“mixed“ teams. But this first time experience in Poland was definitely the best ever. This has primarily to do with my co-producer, Mikołaj Pokromski, and his Pokromski Studio. His commitment and support were outstanding. He presented our project at the PFI, where we got a very positive resonance that enabled us to get subsidies. Mikołaj Pokromski is a young, up-and-coming producer, who already has a solid European network and

a lot of no-nonsense know-how on filmmaking. I’m sure he’ll become a very successful player in Polish cinema in the future. He was able to put a fantastic Polish crew together for me: cinematographer Michał Englert is such a supportive DoP, that although this was the first time I’d worked with him, I felt as if we’d already made ten films together. He has a great team, who put them-selves at the service of a movie. That makes a director feel safer. This attitude was shared by most of the other Polish department heads. Poland has a great deal of tal-ent, enjoys an enviable reputation for its legendary Film School in Łódź, and has a great film infrastructure. If there were greater financial incentives, I’m sure that big international productions would come and shoot their movies in Poland. As for me, I’m ready to do another film in Poland anytime.

About Frédéric Chopin?Perhaps. But right now, I’m thinking more about a mod-ern story set in contemporary Europe. Even though Marie Curie isn’t a traditional period film. Michał Englert and I found a special aesthetic for this intimate portrait of an incredible woman. It’s not focused on costumes or historical settings, but on the feelings of the characters and the beauty of everyday things. And in this sense, Marie Curie is “another” kind of historical drama and a very modern film.

WALDEMAR POKROMSKI Make-up artistThe film required appropriate documen-tation and sources in order to be able to present a true picture of her times. We found a lot of documents about our pro-tagonist at the Sorbonne and I was able to prepare the make-up very thoroughly, in order to make the actors look like people from the period. I had to make sure that she looked like a woman who worked in a laboratory for days on end, under harsh conditions of the time, and in such a way that it didn’t look like the make-up. It was invisible make-up.

Is that why you cast Polish actress, Karolina Gruszka, as Marie Curie?Initially, I thought that it would be difficult to find a French-speaking actress in Poland. And for publicity reasons, my former German distributor thought we should hire an internationally known performer. A very long casting process was commenced. I met a lot of fab-ulous French actresses, but couldn’t make up my mind. There was something missing, and it took me a long time to articulate what it was. I was not necessarily looking for

Great minds think alike? Piotr Głowacki (Albert Einstein, in the middle), Karolina Gruszka (Marie Curie)

She felt that if you’ve been given a talent, then you have a duty to dedicate your life to giving it back in the form of progress for everybody.

I’m ready to do another film in Poland anytime.

KAROLINA GRUSZKA Actress (Marie Curie) I found the script interesting, because it’s laced with nuances. I believe that it gave us an opportunity to draw a more intimate portrait of Maria Skłodowska-

-Curie. My intention was not to tell her story as if she was some kind of monument. What I wanted to do was to show the audience the very things that fasci-nated me about her, namely the power and the passion concealed under a mask of strictness. She was capable of fighting for whatever she believed in, regardless of the consequences. She also fell outside social conven-tions. The uncompromising attitude she displayed was a challenge for those around her. This concerned both her academic work and her emotional life.

a look-alike, but someone who radiated a certain type of energy, a strength in the eyes. In the thousand images of the real Marie Curie, she mostly shows a serious, slightly melancholy face. But if you look below the surface, you can see how feminine and gracious she was and that her stiffness is more due to the fact that people had to hold still for a while to be photographed in those days. I was also worried that it would be difficult for a French actress to put on a convincing Polish accent, which was necessary for the role. So I decided to look more closely in Poland. I spread out many photos of all types of Polish actresses on my table and let them “talk” to me. I very soon realized that one particular picture drew my attention every single time. There was something in her eyes, a strength, and, at the same time, a tenderness that stimulated me. I wanted to meet this actress right away.

And that was Karolina Gruszka.We had an unusual casting session. She took a five-hour flight from Moscow, where she was living at the time, and came to Paris the morning after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The atmosphere in the city was very peculiar. When I saw Karolina in the corridor with her flamboy-ant red hair, the director in me immediately fell in love.

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MARIE CURIEDirector: Marie Noëlle. Screenplay: Marie Noëlle, Andrea Stoll. Cinematography: Michał Englert. Cast: Karolina Gruszka, Izabela Kuna, Daniel Olbrychski, Charles Berling. Producers: Marie Noëlle,Mikołaj Pokromski, Ralf Ziemmermann.

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CINDERELLA STORY We know him as a wonderboy who worked on Ida and was nominated for an Oscar. But make no mistake: Łukasz Żal is a lot more than this one project. And he is only just getting started

Needless to say, Ida, the first Polish film to win the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film” took Żal by surprise. One moment, he was in a car taking him to Pawlikowski’s set, where he was supposed to work as Ryszard Lenczewski’s camera operator, and the next thing he knew, he was shooting in black and white with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It was this that made all the difference when Ida started its international festival and theatrical run. “When I took over, I did not overthink the whole thing. I focused on being productive and open to the flow of creativity, as well as on finding the best visual language to tell this particular story,” reminisces Żal. “What happened next, after the film had been made, I can only describe as a total explosion of everything that had made up my life until that moment. It was a beautiful period, but certainly not an easy one.” But the truth is Ida came to him at exactly the right time.

“I knew I was ready for such a challenge. That is how my adventure with the world of features started. I learned to think outside of the box, and to look for a certain kind of documentary truth in a controlled and stylized environ-ment. This kind of work ethic that Paweł taught me got to be very close to my heart.”

Wunderkind’s soft spotBy the time Ida had gained momentum, Żal was a prominent cinematographer of short documenta-ries. That same year Aneta Kopacz’s Joanna, a poign-ant, thought-provoking and yet somehow joyful, tale of a terminally sick woman, who finds comfort in her family and the beauty of everyday life, was nominated for an Oscar in the “Best Documentary, Short Subject” category. And before that, Żal’s work on Piotr Bernaś’s Paparazzi, about an infamous tabloid press photogra-pher, won him the Golden Frog at the 2011 Camerimage Festival, while the film was nominated for the European Film Award. “I loved shooting documentaries. You have to be open to what is coming to you, you have to feel an

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awful lot, and learn how to look at things, at other peo-ple,” emphasizes Żal. “It can be painful as well. When we were shooting Joanna, there were times when we knew that we had to finish for the day, that we could not go on. I certainly lack in many departments, but I have an empathy, I respect other people.”

Empathy is a trait that Żal constantly puts to the test. In his relatively short career, he has endured many physical and psychical hardships for projects he believed in. One of them, Icon, sent him and director Wojciech Kasperski to distant Siberia, where they shot footage in a psychiatric ward. “This was extremely dif-ficult. We slept in tough, unpleasant places. We were thrown out of some of them for being too curious, and we spent a lot of time with people who were in terrible states. It was only then that I understood how fragile a human psyche really is,” he explains.

To Boldly Go Where...Recently, Żal shot a Polish thriller, On the Border (dir. Wojciech Kasperski), and a Swedish psychological drama, The Here After (dir. Magnus von Horn), affirm-ing his desire to stay in the world of features. “I had this need, very early on in my life, to tell stories, to give something back to people, however banal that might sound. And one of the greatest joys of this job is to go to a movie theatre, and see people laughing and crying at the right moments in your film,” explains Żal, adding that the “Ida wunderkind” gloss has al-ready faded, giving him the impetus to be his own man.

“Yeah, the Oscars changed a lot for me, helped me to continue this journey into the world of feature film, and gave me the opportunity to find some interesting and important projects.”

“I’m not interested in what I can already do. That would get boring after a while, right?” responds Żal when asked about his current slate of projects. He has stayed true to this creed in choosing projects that are somehow unique. Like The Dragon and Twardowsky, two VFX-ridden shorts directed by Tomek Bagiński (Os-car-nominated The Cathedral) that redefined popu-lar Polish folk legends for modern sensibilities. “I had a wonderful time with Tomek. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and learn something in the process,” states Żal. “I think this is what excites me the most, taking up challenges to do things that are new to me, that are difficult and outside of my comfort zone.” What does the future hold, then? “I don’t know. One day, I re-alized that this was what my life was going to look like

– going somewhere to make a film, living there for some time, trying to use this time to the fullest, and then go-ing back to my wife, my family, my friends. And then making another journey.”

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FIRST ONE: The Never-Ending Story by Wolfgang Petersen

FAVORITE ONE 8½ by Federico Fellini

ONE HE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO WORK ON Goodfel-las by Martin Scorsese

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ŁUKASZ ŻAL’S FILMS

Anna Bielak

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Loving Vincent is an extraordinary project that combines painting animation with live action sequences, and stars Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan

In one of his final letters, Vincent van Gogh writes that “We cannot speak other than through our paintings”. This quote provided the main inspiration for the film, which tells the painter’s story through the people he portrayed. The idea for the film appeared over a decade ago. At a certain point in her life, Dorota Kobiela, an artist with a painting and filmmaking degree (this is her first feature-length film, having previously worked on Little Postman and Chopin Drawings, and created the animated sequences for The Flying Machine), came across a collection of letters written by Vincent van Gogh, a selftaught artist not recognized during his lifetime, but who nevertheless painted 860 pictures in eight years, revolutionizing art in the process. The director wanted to tell the painter’s story through his works. “You’d be hard put to find a better protagonist for a project like this than van Gogh, who painted his postman, postman’s son, as well as his doctor and the daughter of the boarding house owner where he was staying. He painted people he knew and who knew him quite well too,” says Sean Bobbitt, CEO of Breakthru Films, one of the producers.

asked themselves whether a camera movement would really add value to the shot. The costumes, designed by Poland’s top costume designer Dorota Roqueplo, and the score, composed by Clint Mansell, definitely added value.

The individual shots are created on canvas boards. A single shot is composed of different versions of the same painting. A five-second shot is composed of 60 frames, i.e. 60 versions of the one painting. The entire film is composed of 1 000 shots, i.e. 60 000 variations prepared on the basis of 1 000 paintings. The subjects of the paintings, once set in motion, determine the modifi-cations made to the pictures. Various details in the space can be seen during the various stages of movement of the characters. The light angle and the shape of the shadows change. The painter then scrapes off pieces of the picture and paints new items. 85 painters have been hired to carry out the animation of film. The producers had two options: find animators and teach them how to paint in Vincent van Gogh’s style; or hire professional painters, and teach them the fundamentals of animation. The latter approach was adopted. More than 1 500 artists

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applied. After a selection process that involved analyzing their portfolios, 500 painters were invited to three-day tests designed to confirm that they had the right tech-nique and intuition to create moving pictures. After the tests, the selected artists were sent on training sessions for several weeks. Forty of them were invited to studios in Gdańsk and Wrocław, where work on the film started. At a subsequent stage of the recruitment process, artists from Greece and Ukraine were also involved.

International pictureThe 58 000 GBP required for the training sessions were raised on Kickstarter. The producers (Breakthru Films and Trademark Films from the UK) opted for the inter-national crowdfunding platform to train the painters even before concluding the official contracts with the Polish Film Institute, two private investors from the US, and the co-producers (the City of Wrocław and the Audiovisual Technology Centre). Bobbitt points out that Loving Vincent would not have been possible unless it was made as a co-production. The budget is around 5 mln EUR. The Polish Film Institute provided 250 000 EUR to help finance the film. Another 250 000 EUR were borrowed. This, however, only accounts for over 10% of the overall budget. Poland is a little wary of animation, especially when it’s so original that it’s hard to compare it to anything else and estimate the profits on that basis. On the other hand, co-productions stand a better chance of finding a big sales agent compared to national films. International interest brought Loving Vincent under the wing of Cinema Management Group, a prestigious US sales agency, and has already earned more than one million dollars in pre-sales.

The film is currently in post-production, which in the case of Loving Vincent is the most time-consuming element of the production, as it entails painting over the live action sequences. The editor is Justyna Wierszyńska in conjunction with Dorota Kobiela, and aided by exec-utive producer, David Parfitt (Academy Award for Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love).

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EYES AND EARS ON VAN GOGH

3 Live action sequences were shot in London (above)

4 Animated shots were created on canvas boards

The film stars Chris O’Dowd (1) and Saoirse Ronan (2)

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The scriptwriters – Kobiela, Hugh Welchamnn in collaboration with Polish writer Jacek Dehnel - are well aware that beautiful paintings aren’t everything. What counts most is the storyline, and this has to keep the audience in suspense, and the protagonists, whom the viewers have to find intriguing. The animation is therefore based on live action footage. The former is being carried out in Poland, and the latter was mainly shot in London.

Loving Vincent tells the story of a young man following van Gogh’s tracks. After Vincent van Gogh’s death, his postman Roulin (Emmy Award Winner Chris O’Dowd) finds a letter which the painter had failed to send to his brother, Theo. Roulin sends it, but the recipient is not found. The postman then gives the envelope to his son Armand (Douglas Booth, known for e.g. Jupiter Ascending by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah) and sends him to Paris. After arriving there, Ar-mand finds that Vincent’s brother is dead, so he starts looking for his friends and more distant relatives. While enquiring about Vincent, he is told various stories and meets all sorts of fascinating people. Saoirse Ronan (Academy Award Nominee for Atonement and Brooklyn) plays Marguerite Gachet in the film; her father Dr. Ga-chet is played by Jerome Flynn. Flynn, known from Game of Thrones, is accompanied by the stars of the BBC’s latest series Poldark: Aidan Turner as Boatman, and Eleanor Tomlinson as Adeline Ravoux. Vincent appears in their memories. The flashbacks are in black and white, and the world seen through Armand’s eyes is composed of Vincent’s paintings brought to life. The young man becomes involved in an attempt to solve the mystery of his death. Did the painter really commit suicide? Or are those who claim he was shot right?

Image comes firstThe live action sequences were directed by Kobiela with the assistance of co-director and producer Hugh Welchman (who won an Oscar for Best Animated Short for Peter & the Wolf). Łukasz Żal, Oscar Nominee for Best Cinematography for Ida, was in charge of the first stage of the live action shooting in Wrocław. DoP Tristan Oliver, whose previous work includes Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, shot the London sequences. Oliver is well aware of the animation rules, and of what live action sequences should look like in a film that will be

both colored and animated. As Bobbitt explains, every single camera movement requires more work from the painter in an animated film. Oliver and Kobiela kept that in mind, and always

Loving Vincent tells the story of a young man fol-lowing van Gogh’s tracks

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LOVING VINCENT Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welshman (co-director) Screenplay: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welch-man, Jacek Dehnel Cinematogra-phy: Łukasz Żal, Tristan Oliver Cast: Chris O’Dowd, Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn. Pro-ducers: Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart. Executive Producers: David Parfitt, Sean Bobbitt

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A LABIRYNTH OF LIES

The Red Captain (Červený kapitán) a joint effort between three neighbouring countries is destined to make waves on the sea of international distribution, as it sails with the tide of ever-popular genre cinema, while resolutely going against it by setting a crime story in a world unknown to viewers outside the region. “The film’s uniqueness lies in its recreation of the Czechoslovakia of 1992, six months before the country was split, when it was still full of former Communist Secret Service agents and hastily buried secrets,” explains the producer, Viktor

Tauš. “We were partly inspired by the impressive wave of Nordic crime dramas. I don’t think their success had anything to do with being more thrilling than American films, but came from depicting a world with which the international audience was not familiar,” he adds.

“I strongly believe Slovaks, Czechs and Poles can compete with Western hits. That’s why we made this a three-country co-production. Not for the money, but for the sheer power of reaching a wider audience through a joint effort,” says director, screenwriter and producer, Michal Kollár. “This is not a made-for-TV-detective-movie-of-the-week, but a historical cinematic document dressed up as a cop thriller.”

Czechoslovakian Gotham CityWhat does the film have to offer international audiences, apart from typical genre dealings? A time-capsule from 1992, for one thing. “The Red Captain is an adaptation of the book by Slovak author Dominik Dán, a former homicide detective who based all his novels on real cases from his career,” explains Kollár, who contacted the writer in 2009, and has worked on the project ever since. “What fascinated me about the book was its detailed depiction of a specific era. Bratislava, where the action takes place, is called ‘Our Town’ and it’s a hybrid of Czechoslovakian cities and mentalities. It’s what Batman’s Gotham City was, and still is, to New York,” he smiles. According to Tauš, almost 70% of the film’s 2.1 mln EUR budget went into painstakingly recreating the Bratislava of 1992. “There are over 400 VFX shots in the film. We weren’t that all far off from The Fellowship of the Ring,” laughs Tauš. “It became my obsession. I was 14 then and I was in love with the city,” he confesses. “Apart from hundreds of historical references, we used quite a lot of the photos I’d taken of Bratislava. Some shots, quite involved from a VFX standpoint, only last a couple of seconds. That wasn’t an easy sacrifice to make, but it was crucial to the overall impression we wanted to create. The Red Captain feels organic, and it depicts a bygone world.”

In other words, blink and you’ll miss something potentially awesome, or crucial to the plot, as detective Richard Krauz, who up until now has only existed in novels, uncovers the inner dealings between the Communist Secret Service and the Slovak Catholic Church. “The really wonderful thing about The Red Captain, and Dán’s other books, is that we all know they are based on authentic events, in fact we might even have our suspicion as to who the real people are, but at the same time, they’re pure entertainment,” says Tauš. “One of the storylines in the book was about the possibility of finding the treasure of the Knights

Templar,” adds Kollár. “Basically, it was a Slovak The Da Vinci Code, which made perfect sense in the novel, but which would not have worked on the screen. We wanted to be as real and entertaining as we could, while providing a few extra layers for

A Slovak-Czech-Polish co-production The Red Captain is a highly effective cop thriller with Poland’s biggest star Maciej Stuhr in main role

Darek Kuźma

There are over 400 VFX shots in the film. We weren’t that all far off from The Fel-lowship of the Ring

Richard Krauz (Maciej Stuhr, above) is an offbeat anti-hero trying not to lose himself in the maze of post-Communist Czechoslovakia

viewers who like to dig deeper.” Agnieszka Kurzydło, the producer on Polish side, agrees. “We didn’t want to stir up controversies, especially when the Church was crucial in fighting the totalitarian regime in Poland. The social and political background is essential to the narrative and the many film arcs. Besides, it’s important that this history is known. I think everyone should learn from the past, because it helps to better understand much of the present.”

Political contexts aside, The Red Captain takes its genre identity very seriously. “I took the advice of the great Alfred Hitchcock. Every 15 minutes, we have an action scene to assure the audience that yes, you are watching the right kind of film, not a social drama,” explains Kollár. As you can imagine, the absolute most is made of the film’s 115 minutes running time. “That’s another advantage of international co-productions. Our co-operation involved much more than simply shooting in three different countries,” says Kurzydło, referring to the crew’s traveling to Kraków (Poland) and Olomouc (Czech Republic), as well as building a few sets in Barrandov Studios in Prague. “We came together to share our creativity and experiences. For us, people are more important than locations,” adds the Polish producer, who was responsible for hiring young Polish DoP Kacper Fertacz, and casting Polish actor Maciej Stuhr, the film’s Richard Krauz. “I think this guy will

be a nice challenge for Western audiences,” continues Kollár. “Central European heroes do not exactly go in for heroic things. They don’t want to set things right from the get-go. Richard’s no Batman. He needs to be pushed to be heroic, and doesn’t need success to find fulfillment.”

The Red Captain was developed through various European programs, including ScripTeast and EAVE Producers Workshop. It took almost seven years to complete, with roughly 60 shooting days divided into two periods, and extensive VFX work in between.

The film has already peaked in Slovak cinemas, and has distribution deals in the Czech Republic and Poland. The producers, who previously worked on another successful film, The Red Spider (dir. Marcin Koszałka), are about to embark on two more joint efforts.

THE RED CAPTAIN. Director: Michal Kollár. Screenplay: Miro Šifra, Anna Fifíková, Michal Kollár. Cinematography: Kacper Fertacz. Cast: Maciej Stuhr, Oldřich Kaiser, Marián Geišberg, Martin Finger. Producers: Viktor Tauš, Michal Kollár, Agnieszka Kurzydło.

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Every 15 minutes, we have an action scene to assure the audience that yes, you are watching the right kind of film, not a social drama

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“People say that DI, and post-production generally, is a technical process, but so is diamond cutting,” explains Jędrzej Sabliński, DI Factory’s CEO. “When a film looks beautiful, or wins an Oscar, it’s suddenly a work of art

– a ‘diamond’ – but it was made that way by a number of craftspeople after months of hard work. It’s easy to say,

‘Do that more green,’ but it’s a real challenge to make it an integral part of each shot and have it fit in with the tone of the film.” Indeed, over the past decade or so, DI (Digital Intermediate) has become an indispensable part of the film world, a process which can take up to half the production cycle. According to Sabliński’s estimates, however, it’s still only assigned approximately 5% of the overall budget. “Yes, it’s under-appreciated, and it’s go-ing to take many years to change that, but we’re trying to educate the industry about DI’s ever-growing possi-bilities,” adds Kamil Rutkowski, the company’s CTO.

DI Factory seems to offer the full package, from advis-ing on how to make the production cycle swift and effi-cient to working on each individual frame and helping with data preservation. There’s a reason why DI Factory is considered something of a game-changer in the DI/post-production segment of the industry. “Companies don’t normally offer such a wide variety of services,” continues Sabliński. “We decided that we could only guarantee the highest standards if we could control the entire process from the get-go. We’re very ambitious. At the same time, we don’t want to lose our passion. That’s why we try not to take it all too seriously, and to have some fun with what we do and how we do it.”

Warsaw-based post-production outlet works with passion, ambition and establishes new standards in the industry

“Apart from that,” says Rafał Golis, DI Factory’s Sales Executive, “we deliver what we promise. If we tell the producers before the shoot that we’re going to deliver something in a certain number of months, then they can rest assured that that’s what’s going to happen, i.e. that it’s not just some wishful thinking to get their money.”

Golis cites DI Factory’s achievements in the field of digital restoration as a prime example of company’s strive for perfection. “A lot of the films we restored can be found in Masterpieces of Polish Cinema program, which was greatly supported by Martin Scorsese,” says Golis. “We’re proud of how the films have been digitally restored to their original glory,” emphasizes Sabliński. This is yet another aspect of the company’s portfo-lio, one that helps them with DI fine-tuning modern films. “On restoration projects, we mostly work with the original filmmakers. We see ourselves as ‘the painter’s brush.’ We are facilitators who bring their vision to life in the way it has always deserved, but which has been limited by existing technology,” says Rutkowski.

No wonder the company’s reputation has sky-rock-eted internationally over the years. “We’ve provided ser-vices for the Japanese and the Australians, as well as the Greeks and the Spanish”, says Sabliński. “We recently wrapped up Jim Carrey’s Polish-American thriller True Crimes, and we’re currently working on the Polish-Mex-ican production La Habitación. I have to say that luck has been on our side from day one. Our first DI was done on Ida,” he smiles. All things considered, is it difficult to maintain such an ambitious course? “It can be trying at times. Especially when our company, which ventures into new things and is up to date with the latest technol-ogy, is being compared with one-man firms registered in flats and with quite different equipment,” says Golis.

“It’s not that we’re complaining. We love what we do and we’re excited about each new project, but it would be nice if people treated DI with the respect it deserves,” adds Sabliński. “It’s a craft that requires years of exper-tise. It’s an art form, a diamond-cutting process of bringing out the full potential of a film.”

Darek Kuźma

THE ART OF THE DI FACTORY

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The Polish Filmmakers Association has been embark-ing on international initiatives ever since the first years of its operation. Which of their projects have been the most important in your opinion?These initiatives aren’t directly connected with film production. That’s not our task. Our activity involves popularizing Polish cinema, i.e. organizing reviews of films in various countries across the world: we’ve been doing it for years now together with the Polish Film In-

PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCEThe Polish Filmmakers Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary. PFA president, director Jacek Bromski explains, how the organization supports filmmakers as well as the development of a film industry in Poland

stitute. Another aspect is related to filmmakers’ author’s rights and the organizational structures of the Polish film industry. We have been active in film organizations’ forums for more than 20 years, ever since when we started reorganizing the Polish Filmmakers Association. Back then, the issue of filmmakers’ author’s rights was the most important aspect. We established the Union of Audiovisual Authors and Producers (ZAPA), a collective management organization for filmmakers’ rights. We had to start from scratch, with only two people working in a very small room, competing against the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS), which at the time could already boast a tradition spanning 80 years, had loads of money, and was known interna-tionally. Nevertheless, we managed to make the whole world warm to us, we signed reciprocal representation agreements with the MPAA as well as with China and Ja-pan, not to mention Europe. Those were the underlying sources of our organizational, structural and financial success.

In the period I’m talking about here, Poland wasn’t part of the EU, but we had already entered European structures strongly, and we wanted to benefit from the help of foreign organizations. Above all, there was the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) and the International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors (AIDAA), whose members are associations protecting filmmakers’ author’s rights. I should add that culture and the creative sectors used to be treat-ed differently in Europe at the time. The European Commission supported culture much more than it does now. The Commission now takes the view that cultur-al aspects should be addressed by each Member State individually. I remember that back then the European Parliament and the European Commission were very friendly to us, which enabled us to lobby for the Act on Cinematography in Poland. We used to organize Polish cinema congresses, attended by members of the Europe-an Committee on Culture and Members of the European Parliament. Once, we even had the French Minister of Culture and some Vice Ministers. I remember the visit of socialist leader Jack Lang, who spoke during one of these congresses, saying that those who failed to look

after their national culture were criminals. The Speaker of the Senate left the room, outraged. All up, it took ten years to “force” the Act on Cinematography through the Polish Seym, and then through the Senate. That law was of key importance for the development of Polish cinema structures. The Association has been working to develop these structures ever since its inception. It has been a laborious process, but eventually we’ve built what is arguably the best organization of its kind in Europe. At least this is what everyone has been saying.

What makes it the best?It can do a lot, politically speaking. The Association has managed to build such a position for itself that the vari-ous political parties and the Parliament take its opinion into account more than those of other organizations. Another reason is the broad spectrum of our operations. We care for the environment, and we have all the things professional associations normally offer. We provide social benefits and look after young filmmakers. We produce first features, but above all, first shorts, at the Association’s Munk Studio. This enables young directors to put their skills to the test after they finish school, but before they enter the professional market. The films produced include short fiction films, documentaries and animations. Our program is unique and can’t be found anywhere else in the world, so everyone envies us.

What is the most important thing for the Polish Film-makers Association right now?It’s mainly the issue of online piracy, and the lack of a legislative framework to regulate it. We’ve been trying to get the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means completed. This was required

by an EU Directive ten years ago. We also want to make the government realize that creative industries account for 5% of employment in our country and contribute immensely to the state budget. During a press confer-ence at the Ministry of Culture in April, we asked the Ministry to commission comprehensive research into the contribution of creative industries to GDP, because no such studies had been carried out, and data from oth-er countries aren’t taken seriously in Poland. Perhaps if we could make the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Economy realize what creative industries actually are, and what cannot be seen with the naked eye, we’d really be able to get these initiatives off the ground. We’ve already learnt that we have to keep patiently plugging away, because it eventually yields results.

The Association has managed to build such a position for itself that the vari-ous political parties and the Parliament take its opinion into account more than those of other organizations.

Ola Salwa

PFM 2|201628

FINANCINGFor a Polish co-producer, the maximum subsidy is:

PLN2 000 000 approx. EUR 470 000

FINANCIAL SOURCES IN POLAND

OPERATIONAL PROGRAM FOR FILM PRODUCTIONPolish Film Institute

HOW TO FIND MONEY IN POLAND

FOR PRODUCERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLDParticipation of Polish co-producer neccessary

DEADLINESThere are three application sessions in 2016:

REQUIREMENTSYou have to hire at least one Polish Head of Department (DoP, Set Designer, Editor, Composer);

• A separate selection commission for minority co-productions;

• Bilateral treaty not necessary, even for non-European projects.

2016

SESSION 1December 14, 2015

– January 7, 2016;

SESSION 2April 1–15, 2016;

SESSION 3August 1–15, 2016.

MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS

TTernopilernopil

DaugavpilsDaugavpils

FINANCINGFor a Polish co-producer, the maximum subsidy is:

PLN4 000 000 approx. EUR 932 000

subsidy up tu 50% of the total budget

WHO TO BOTHER FOR MORE INFORMATION: Robert Baliński, tel.: +48 22 42 10 387, email: robert.balinski@pisf.pl.

50%

To be eligible for consideration, applications must include the following i.e.: script, director’s statement, synopsis, budget, estimated production costs, script rights agreement;

REQUIREMENTS FOR MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS

• For bilateral co-productions, the Polish contribution must be at least 20% of the total budget;

• For multilateral co-productions, the Polish contribution must be at least 10% of the total budget;

• At least 80% of the subsidy must be spent in Poland.

The Polish producer’s own contribution must amount to no less than 5% of the expected cost of the Polish financing.

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BUDGET

MAX. PFI SUBSIDY

POLISHBUDGET

50%70%

30%

PFM 2|2016 29MONEY BANK

POLISH-GERMAN FILM FUNDFunding institutions: Polish Film Institute, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

REGIONAL FILM FUNDSIn general, the Polish regional film funds seek film projects by announcing competitions, usually once a year. One basic condition for entering a project for a competion is that it is related to a city or town in the region or to the region itself. Support is also contingent on the spending of at least 100% of the funding within the region; in some cases, the sum to be expended is 150%.

The Polish regional film funds differ in terms of the budgets they manage, the forms of support they provide and the sums which must be spent locally.

All the Polish film funds provide support of up to 50% of the film budget, although this may be higher in the case of documentaries and animated films.

Foreign producers are also welcome to submit projects, though preferably as partners to Polish producers.

KRAKOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FUNDThe Krakow International Film Fund is a new tool supporting international co-operation. It is aimed at the development of co-operation of the European audiovisual sector with other countries of the world through co-financing international co-productions. “We’re are in talks and we’re planning to announce the second edition of the Competition in the second quater of 2016,” says KIFF’s Katarzyna Wodecka-Stubbs.

REQUIREMENTS

FOR PRODUCERS FROMPoland | GermanyApplications may only be submitted on condition that a co- development (or co -production) agreement has been signed by at least one Polish producer and at least one German producer from the region in which MDM and Medienboard operate.

FOR DEVELOPMENT the maximum subsidy is:

EUR 70 000

FOR CO-PRODUCTIONS the maximum subsidy is:

EUR150 000

Annual budget approximately

EUR300 000

WHO TO BOTHER FOR MORE INFORMATION: Robert Baliński, tel.: +48 22 42 10 387, email: robert.balinski@pisf.pl.

Two sessions per year in 2016 (application forms and application dates are available on the websites of the Fund’s founders);

The budget of the film should not exceed EUR 750 000;

For: animated films, creative documentaries, low budget narrative films and/or first films and/or films that present an innovative approach;

Television projects are eligible in exceptional cases, with the exception of television feature films.

FINANCING

1 GDYNIA FILM FUND www.ckgdynia.pl

2 LOWER SILESIAN FILM COMPETITION www.wroclawfilmcom-mission.pl/dkf

3 LUBLIN FILM FUND www.film.lublin.eu

4 ŁÓDŹ FILM FUND www.lodzfilmcom - mission.pl

5 KRAKOW REGIONAL FILM FUND www.film-commission.pl

6 MAZOVIA FILM FUND www.mff.mazovia.pl

7 REGIONAL FILM FUND POZNAŃ www.poznanfilmcom- mission.pl

8 SILESIAN FILM FUND www.silesiafilm.com

9 POMERANIA FILM www.pomeraniafilm.pl

PFM 2|201630 PFM 2|2016 31MONEY BANK

TITLE POLISH DISTRIBUTOR COUNTRY GROSS IN EUR ADMISSIONS SCREENS RELEASE

Listy do M. 2 KINO ŚWIAT Poland 12 270 964 2 874 420 328 11/13

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

DISNEY USA 10 457 281 2 058 857 601 12/18

Spectre FORUM FILM United Kingdom / USA 8 288 378 1 750 671 350 11/6

Fifty Shades of Grey UIP USA 8 228 777 1 814 116 305 2/13

The Penguins of Madagascar

IMPERIAL CINEPIX USA 7 218 669 1 634 542 235 1/30

The Minions UIP USA 7 139 606 1 669 881 307 6/26

Hotel Transylvania 2 UIP USA 5 131 966 1 154 354 213 10/9

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

FORUM FILM New Zeland / USA 4 540 721 950 232 43512/26

(2014)

Fast & Furious 7 UIP USA / Japan 4 507 522 995 199 252 4/10

Inside Out DISNEY USA 3 900 257 952 617 217 7/1

Breakdown of 2015 admissions by country of origin

2015

44.7

2014

40.4

2013

36.3

Admission over past years in mln

20122011

38.538.7

EUR 4.27EUR 193.1

POLAND IN NUMBERS Box Office 2015

64.64 %18.65%

14.15%

USA 28.8 mln

EU6.3 mln

PL8.3 mln

OTHER2.56%

PL EU USA

41

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Number of premieres in 2015

343

Average ticket price

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KEY FILM FESTIVALSin Poland in 2016

1 PKO OFF CAMERA PRO INDUSTRY

Professional film industry platform fo-cused on networking and match -making Polish and international filmmakers. The core of the program are round tables, case studies and workshops.

2 Krakow Film FestivalIndustry Zone

A series of events dedicated to documen-tary and animated films, including Krakow Film Market, discussion panels, pitchings and co -production meetings. DOC LAB POLAND, a program for Polish documentary filmmakers, focusing on con-sultation and pitching. Consists of: Docs to Go! (in progress) and Docs to Start (in development).

3 T- Mobile New Horizons Polish Days

Presentation of the latest completed Pol-ish feature films and works -in -progress at closed screenings. Projects in development are also pitched here to the international audience and followed by one -on -one sessions.

4 Warsaw Film Festival CentEast Market Warsaw

Presentation of new Polish films and best works -in -progress from Central and East-ern Europe. CentEast also organizes work-shops for young film critics (FIPRESCI Warsaw Project) and young filmmakers (Shorts Warszawa). CE in partnership with Bejing Film Market promotes collaboration of Chinese and European film industries (China -Europe Film Promotion Project).

5 International Festival of Producers Regiofun

Look for FunLook For Fund forum – one-on-one meetings provide opportunities of pre-senting projects to potential investors, co -producers and regional film funds. Ac-companied by the open pitching preceded by professional training.

6 American Film Festival US in Progress

Event aimed at matching American indie filmmakers, who have nearly completed their films, with European post -production outlets, festival programmers, sales agents, distributors.

PKO OFF CAMERA International Festival of Independent Cinema �kraków This festival presents works by young filmmakers from all over the world. www.offcamera.pl

Docs Against Gravity Film Festivalwarsaw A selection of the best feature -length documentaries.www.docsag.pl

Film Music Festivalkraków A festival devoted to film music.www.fmf.fm

Krakow Film Festival�kraków An international festival presenting documentaries, animations and short features.www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Lubuskie Film Summerłagów A festival of films from the post -communist block.www.llf.pl

Two Riversides Film and Art Festivalkazimierz dolny An event that brings together film and other fields of art.www.dwabrzegi.pl

Gdynia Film Festivalgdynia Poland’s most important festival of new feature films. www.festiwalgdynia.pl

“Youth and Cinema” Debut Film Festivalkoszalin Festival for Polish young filmmakers with sidebar section with international debuts.www.mlodziifilm.pl

PGNiG Transatlantyk Film Festivalłódź An event that combines cinema and music.www.transatlantyk.org.pl

Warsaw Film Festival 4

warsaw The latest and most interesting features and documentaries from around the world. A-class festival.www.wff.pl

International Festival of Producers Regiofun �katowice This event presents films made with the support of regional film funds.www.regiofun.pl

American Film Festival 6

wrocław New American feature and documentary films.www.americanfilmfestival.pl

Etiuda & Anima International Film Festivalkraków Student films and animations are shown here.www.etudiaandanima.com

Camerimagebydgoszcz This festival is devoted to the art of cinematography.www.camerimage.pl

Ale Kino! International Young Audience Film Festivalpoznań Films for young viewers.www.alekino.com

Animator International Animated Film Festivalpoznań Animated films from all over the world.www.animator -festival.com

T- Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival �wrocław A round ‑up of films blazing the trail for new trends in cinema.www.nowehoryzonty.pl

MAY

JUNE

JULY

OCTOBER

MAY/JUNE

INDUSTRY EVENTS

JUNE/JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

BATTLEFIELD: POLAND

1 Steel dome in Międzyrzecz Fortification Region (MRU, also known as The Festungfront Oder-Warther-Bogen), built in 1934-1944.

2 Srebrnogórska Fortress, constructed in 1765-1777 by the Kingdom of Prussia.

3 Góra Gradowa – part of Grodzisko fortress (Hagelsberg) established in 1655 and rebuilt in 19th century.

From the Prussia’s and tsarist fortifications to II World War bunkers, including Hitler’s headquaters in Wolfsschanze - the country’s military locations are a blast!

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7 Modlin Fortress – built in 1806-1812 and comprising French, Russian and Polish fortifications.

8 Przemyśl Fortress, constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1854.

9 Bunker “Sęp” (Vulture) in Jastarnia, part of the Hel Fortified Area, set up in 1936.

If you want to learn more about Polish locations or shoot-ing permits or find a location scout, see LOCATION GUIDE POLAND

available at www.film- commission- poland.pl

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4 Wilczy Szaniec/Wolfsschanze in Gierłoż. Hitler’s Headquaters, 1941-1944.

5 Concrete underground railway bunker in Stępina, built in 1940-1941 by the Third Reich’s Todt Organization.

6 Barracks in Wisłoujście Fortress. Earliest fortifications date from the 15th century. 5

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Poland has sandy Baltic sea beaches, dunes, stylish shipyards and great infrastructure to offer

COME AND SEA

“The team of 24 chose Łeba because of the beauty it presents on the screen. It complemented the roman-tic song, composed by Oscar and Grammy winner A.R. Rahman,” says Anuj Sharma, Poland Line Producer for 24 (directed by Vikram K. Kumar, and starring Suriya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu) (1,2). Marie Curie’s was also partly shot in Łeba that poses as Normandy (4)

ADVERTISMENT

Poland northern regions of Pomerania and Western Pomerania are equally welcoming to the film crews. Gdańsk, the captial city of the first region, served as a location for French drama

Fidelio: l’odyssee d’Alice (3) and even Hollywood large-scale production: Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (6). Szczecin is the largest city in Western Pomerania and has great locations that

have been used in e.g. the Polish-Danish film Word (5). There are two local film funds: Western Pomeranian Film Fund (Pomerania Film) and Gdynia Film Fund.

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Chadov, showed up instead. Although he was an excellent actor, he wasn’t Alexey. As everything had been ar-ranged in haste, including the trans-lation of the correspondence, nobody had noticed the slight difference in names. There was no time to rectify the situation. Now I know I always need to check the names and sur-names several times.

You come across even more amus-ing situations when you work in cast-ing. For Alexander Sokurov’s Faust, I was looking for distinctive actors for the bit parts of Faust’s assistants and monsters. These included a Giant, a Midget, an Underwater Demon, a Bird-Woman, and a Parish Priest. I was after people with distinctive fa-cial and bodily features. The Giant was played by a 7-foot-tall (213 cm) man. For the role of the Priest, we found a lovely lady called Wioletta, who was just as flirtatious and passionate as she was corpulent. An ultra-skinny model played the Bird-Woman. Waldemar Pokromski prepared some special make-up. The director was de-lighted. We put the whole freak show troupe on the train from Warsaw to Prague, where some of the shoot-ing was to take place. The conduc-tor who came to our compartment to

Casting director Piotr Bartuszek, who worked with Christopher Doyle and Michael Glawogger spills the bean

check our tickets opened the door and fainted.

Every director has their own work-ing system and approach to the cast. I like those who give me a free hand in suggesting actors. I like being left to plan my own casting vision – es-pecially when it’s a co-production, or, in the case of foreign collaborations, when the director is not familiar with Polish actors. The director’s trust is the crucial thing. Christopher Doyle gave me free rein when he was shoot-ing Warsaw Dark. There were no stand-ard screen tests. An interview with the actor was enough. Christopher has an exceptional approach to actors. He used to say that lighting, set design and faces were the most important aspects. “What’s a casting director, anyway?” he would often tease me.

“What’s he for?” My answer was that it was someone everybody loved when filming started, but who was eventu-ally relegated to somewhere between the catering staff and the drivers.

I have very fond memories of the late Michael Glawogger, with whom I worked on Contact High. Michael had some very specific character types that I, driven by my youthful arrogance, tried to “improve”. For instance, there was a ticket-checking scene in the script. I thought it would be funnier to have a very masculine woman play the ticket inspector. For-tunately, he liked my ideas.

I like my work, because it’s so di-versified and unpredictable. Right now, I’m looking for Polish actors who speak Yiddish for a US drama docu-mentary Who Will Write Our History. This tells the story of how the Secret Ar-chive of the Warsaw Ghetto was estab-lished. It’s going to be Poland’s first film in Yiddish since 1939. I’ve been going out a lot lately, looking for some vivid characters, and people have been inviting me to Purim dinners and parties. Unfortunately, the inevitable matchmakers have ensnared me in the process. Who knows, maybe my latest production will be accompanied by an engagement?

Casting involves meeting a lot of new characters. I’d even go as far as to call it “going on a film date”. There are some dates we recollect with delight, but also some we’d like to forget im-mediately. Although people generally prefer to talk about their achievements, I’m going to tell you about some rather weird situations, and even bloopers.

When we were putting together the cast for Limousine, a film shot in War-saw, and starring Christopher Lambert, I was looking for a Russian actor to play the mysterious F. This was during my first years of working in casting. I had a good insight into Polish actors, but I wasn’t too familiar with Russian talents at the time, so I asked some agent friends to help. Among numer-ous suggestions, most people praised Aleksey Chadov, who was known for his role in The 9th Company. The ac-tor said he was interested, we agreed on the pay and the schedules, but his brother, Andrey Aleksandrovich

Piotr Bartuszek

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FINDING MR AND MS RIGHT

REMAINS OF THE DAYPFM 2|2016

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(Krzysztof Bagiński) and Michał (Mi-chał Huszcza) through a tumult of Warsaw locations – a fever-drift haze through a year of parties. Time and memory take hold with a quiet mel-ancholy and fragility (they’re both struggling to get over breakups), but with an ecstatic pulse, mundane mo-ments flare into sudden beauty and heightened experience. It’s hard to imagine this film being made by any-one other than Marczak. It won him the Best Director Award in the Sun-dance World Documentary Compe-tition. This is not surprising. This is naturalism that straddles the bound-ary of fiction, and it carries a real charge. This talent for immersive filmmaking, which achieves a disarm-ingly intimate view on daydreaming youth, was previously demonstrated in Fuck For Forest.

Make no mistake: the ongoing need to reckon with Poland’s history of wartime atrocities and commu-nist oppression underpins some of the country’s most powerful films last year - films that came up with fresh, vital approaches to address this legacy. The late Marcin Wrona’s heartfelt yet droll horror film De-mon (2015) is set during a wedding reception, and draws on the Jewish myth of the Dybbuk in its portrayal of a land haunted by the wrongs of

DAYDREAMING YOUTH

Berlin-based film critic Carmen Gray takes a closer look at Poland’s new generation

the Holocaust. Its dispensing with the Christian framework, common to films such as Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida, in the telling of its tale, is signif-icant, and enables a more immersive identification with the persecuted. Tomasz Wasilewski deservedly won the Silver Bear for Best Script at the Berlinale for United States of Love. Four women grasp at an authentic emotional life in the tentative new freedom of ‘90s Poland in this tribute to his parents’ generation and their more limited options - a film still bracingly progressive in its weave of complex female roles.

Wasilewski, it could be said, is at the helm of the young Polish van-guard. His previous film, Floating Skyscrapers, was boundary-pushing in its portrayal of a burgeoning and intense gay romance amid pervasive homophobia. His confrontational ex-plorations of people determined to live on their own terms gives hope for a risk-taking cinema geared toward openness to experience. While desire complicated by social circumstance is the driving force behind Wasilews-ki’s films, Marczak avoids overt references to societal forces. But All These Sleepless Nights is not a denial of history. Rather, it breathes in the transformative magic of energy with an intuitive faith – the life of a city as constant regeneration. Can any con-clusions be drawn about films as sin-gular as these? If anything, it’s that whatever the shadows cast by regres-sive forces, young Polish filmmakers are daring and innovative enough to shine a defiant light.

Few landmark buildings are more loaded with the brazen swagger of power or the resentment of the citi-zenry than Warsaw’s Palace of Cul-ture, Stalin’s “gift” to the Polish people. The scars of this oppressive history still thematically dominate Polish cinema. This makes the open-ing of Michał Marczak’s All These Sleepless Nights all the more curi-ous. Through an apartment win-dow, our gaze glides across a night skyline dominated by the Soviet skyscraper. Fireworks are set off around it to the spaced-out pop track I Hear A New World - a vision that seems to have come straight out of a sci-fi movie. As framed by Marczak, Warsaw does not come across as weighed down by the inescapabil-ity of the past, but as buoyant with strange, youthful possibilities. Could this be a new Polish cinema - one of eternal nowness?

The cyclical, and often inscrutable, nature of emotion orients the film as we join art school friends Krzysztof

Carmen Gray

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REMAINS OF THE DAYPFM 2|2016