POLISH FILM MAGAZINE 2/2016

POLISH FILM MAGAZINE 2|2016

Marie Noëlle has chemistry with Marie Curie

What Paweł Pawlikowski writes in his bathtub

Oh captain, my Red Captain

EDITORIAL

PFM 2|2016

Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Locarno – Poland is there, be it with films, talents or film professionals, always ready to take on new international projects. 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 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 commemorate 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 encourage 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.

Magdalena Sroka General Director of the Polish Film Institute

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

CONTENTS Editorial 1 Production news 2 Paweł Pawlikowski 6 CANNES 2016 The Decalogue 8 Klaudia Śmieja - a Producer on the Move 12

TALENTS Marie Noëlle 14 Łukasz Żal 18 Loving Vincent 20 The Red Captain 22 DI Factory 24 Jacek Bromski 26 MONEY BANK Get financed in Poland 28 Box office 30 Key Polish Film Festivals 31

Tomasz Dąbrowski Head of Film Commission Poland

LOCATE&SHOOT Battlefield: Poland 32 Come and sea 36 REMAINS OF THE DAY Finding Mr and Ms Right 38 Daydreaming Youth 40

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.

©© MARCIN KUŁAKOWSKI / PISF, FILM COMMISSION POLAND

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 accounts of our shared history. This has resulted in European films becoming increasingly diverse and nuanced.

While a co-production may require more effort at the production stage, I believe that its benefits make this investment worthwhile.

Earlier this year, the Polish Film Institute introduced a separate 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. Minority 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 financing available for each stage of production. We encourage you to submit your projects.

1

2

NEWS

PFM 2|2016

STAR-STUDDED ADULT FANTASY FILM

BY POLISH DIRECTOR LECH MAJEWSKI

The Valley of the Gods cast comprises Charlotte Rampling, Josh Hartnett, John Rhys-Davis, 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

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 impressive 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 company, Angelus Silesius, and Filip Rymsza from Royal Road Entertainment in Los Angeles. The co-producers are Peter Safran from The Safran Company, Jan Harlan, and Tumult Foundation. 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.

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 Paulo, Rotterdam, Washington, Munich, and Milan. The film gained critical acclaim and won five Grand Prix. The Polish 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-produced by Sander Verdonk

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 Commission. 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.

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 predicted 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.

©© PROMO, © MICHAŁ ENGLERT, © MICHAŁ ZIENKIEWICZ

Balkan prophet Baba Vanga coming to the big screen

PFM 2|2016

3

Jacek Borcuch developing a Polish-Italian project

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.

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 ambiguous 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.

Monika Lenczewska is Variety’s 10 cinematographers to watch!

The Polish-born DoP and AFI graduate has already worked on international projects e.g. Imperial Dreams (dir. Malik Vitthal) and Difret (dir. Zeresenay Mehari).

Both films were shown at Sundance, where Lenczewska was nominated for Cinematography Award (for Difret). “Recognition 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 Gunnar Sigurdsson), produced by Rams’s Netop Films (Iceland) and Madants Ltd (Poland).

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 Gombrowicz, sees emigration not as a tragedy, but as an opportunity 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,

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 without 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). Shooting 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.

NEWS

PFM 2|2016

Diego Lerman new film starts shooting with Polish DoP

Latvian-PolishLithuanian 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 Generation 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 Klaudia Śmieja and Beata Rzeźniczek from Madants.

The Polish talent list includes editor Agnieszka 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 looking for a sales agent.

LithuanianPolish-Bulgarian Miracle wrapped 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 struggling 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 realism with a hint of the absurd.

The film stars Vyto Ruginis (The Devil’s Advocate, Moneyball) and Polish star Daniel Olbrychski. Olbrychski has been working on international projects for decades. His cred-

Rachel Weisz’s Denial shot in Kraków 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 Entertainment), 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. Production 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 successful shoot,” say Foster and Russ.

Family for sale is a joint effort between Campo Cine (Argentina), 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 Berlinale 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.

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 Lithuania 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 looking for additional finance and world sales. Miracle is expected to premiere in early 2017.

©© PROMO

4

PFM 2|2016

Agnieszka Holland Polish-German project

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

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 genocidal 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.

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

ADVERTISMENT

5

Lithuanian-Polish Crisis set for 2016 release 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 Blaževičius, and produced by Marija Razgutė, from Čiobreliai (Lithuania), and co-produced by Marta Lewandowska, Marta Habior from Poland-based No Sugar Films. The world sales is open.

6

PFM 2|2016

NEWS

Isn’t it easier to raise money after an Oscar?

It would be if I were making an English or French language film. For Polish-language speaking films with actors 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 Trzebuchowska, who played the role of the eponymous Ida? Honestly, I don’t know. We’re looking for actors everywhere 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.

Oscar-winning director Paweł Pawlikowski talks about his new project, his creative process, and why he likes to work in the bathtub Ola Salwa

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 literally. 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- raising speed.

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 encounters, loves, deaths, children, books, journeys, political 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.

©© PRIVATE ARCHIVE

WHAT’S NEW?

When you’re not directing, you’re teaching at the Wajda 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.

PFM 2|2016

FILM SERIES THAT COUNTS “I believe the life of every person is worthy of scrutiny, containing its own secrets and dramas.”

Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996)

CANNES 2016

©© JANUSZ GUTTNER/EAST NEWS, © JACEK CICHECKI/FILMOTEKA NARODOWA, © ROMUALD PIEŃKOWSKI/FILMOTEKA NARODOWA, © ANDRZEJ BURCHARD/FILMOTEKA NARODOWA

8

PFM 2|2016

9

2

1

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.

A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING

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.

My background as a lawyer lay at the core of this film. I was a promising attorney, who had handled a lot of complicated, unprecedented cases. At the same time, I was experiencing 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

A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE 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

In A Short Film About Love we wanted 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 exhibitionism and voyerism. Time has shown that we were right.

Today people have nothing to hide.

3

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.

10

CANNES 2016

PFM 2|2016

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

AGNIESZKA HOLLAND 1

SŁAWOMIR IDZIAK

Director (she consulted scripts for Trois Couleurs trilogy)

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

Krzysztof was a moralist. He had a very serious approach to the obligations resulting from his non-serious profession of film director.

He really walked the talk, doing what he would tell his students: the decision where to put the camera 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.

winning the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI international 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

2

To my mind what set him apart from other filmmakers was his courage. But he wasn’t possesed of the bravary of a visionary filmmaker completely devoted to his own independent choices. Although Kieślowski always followed his intuition, 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 tempered 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.

MARIN KARMITZ 3 Producer (Trois Couleurs trilogy)

1

2

3

I produced films of many great directors of my generation, but to be honest, with Krzysztof Kieślowski’s I had most of the fun doing it.

What impressed me the most was his respect for the crew, his humanity 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?”.

©© PRIVATE ARCHIVES, © MARCIKN KUŁAKOWSKI/PISF, © MIECZYSŁAWM MICHALAK/AGENCJA GAZETA

*MICHAEL BROOKE is a freelance writer specializing in British and Central-Eastern European cinema.

He has been a regular contributor to Sight and Sound for more than a decade.

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 international 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 filmmakers. 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: Ingmar 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,

PFM 2|2016

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 nonetheless 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 So when Kieślowski international interest, as it spanned and his co-writer the years 1919-82 and offered an Krzysztof Piesiewunprecedentedly intimate portrait icz began writing The of the effect of very familiar events Decalogue, it seemed in twentieth-century Germany logical to create history on ordinary people. But The a cinema spin-off.

Decalogue lacked this historical/political interest – whereas Kieślowski’s earlier films tended to have strongly political subject matter, with The Decalogue he consciously abandoned this for more universally human concerns.

ADVERTISMENT

11

POLISH REPRESENTATIVES AT PRODUCER’S NETWORK IN CANNES

2 MARCIN WIERZCHOSŁAWSKI Metro Films 1 JOANNA SZYMAŃSKA SHIPsBOY 2

3

3 RADEK DRABIK Gigant Films

1

4

4 MAGDALENA KAMIŃSKA Balapolis

5 5 JAN KWIECIŃSKI Akson Studio

PFM 2|2016

CANNES 2016

©© BARBARA WADACH

12

PFM 2|2016

13

AVOIDING THE LIMITS This year has already been a good one for Klaudia Śmieja. Her coproductions have premiered at Sundance and Berlinale. Śmieja, who has already worked for Steven Spielberg joins Producers on the Move in Cannes Urszula Lipińska

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 production 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 Aeroplan 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

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 produce unique, original feature and documentary films.

“Among the factors that draw my attention to a particular 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 a few long-distance collaborations. One of them is with Greek producer In 2015 Rams, a film Amanda Livanou. “We’ve co-produced by just made Sofia ExarKlaudia Śmieja was presented at the chou’s Park and are now Cannes Film Festival preparing Pity by Babis and won the Un CerMakridis. Meanwhile, I’m working on another tain Regard Prize 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 Under the tree by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and Foam at the Mouth, a thriller directed by Jānis Nords. Moreover, 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-Barbul. Her dream-director? “I’m working with one of them right now.”

TALENTS

PFM 2|2016

A BEAUTIFUL MIND 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, says Marie Noëlle who directed this Polish-French-German-Belgium film about Marie Curie

Marie Curie (Karolina Gruszka) in her laboratory

Ola Salwa

Maria Skłodowska-Curie or simply, Marie Curie, is a well-known historical figure. Several films have already been made about her, including a 1943 Hollywood 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 godmother 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 mathematics. 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 private life. Marie was widowed, but Paul was married. This

©© PROMO

14

PFM 2|2016

15

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. Appallingly, Curie took all the blame for the affair. Langevin was portrayed as her victim. Men are allowed to have affairs, 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 opportunities 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.

Working in a research lab, and discovering new chemical 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-yearold 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)

MIKOŁAJ POKROMSKI Polish producer of the film About the production: I’ve known Marie Noëlle for a long time. I’d actually 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 consulting, 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 preparing a project for a Polish film about

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

About Poland as a partner: Poland offers competitive film service prices, and on top of that, you can apply for funding from the Polish 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 financial incentives yet, but once this happens, our position will be greatly strengthened. We also have an excellent 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 equivalent of the picture of the professors 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.

16

TALENTS

PFM 2|2016

MARIE CURIE Director: 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.

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.

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 fabulous 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

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 collaboration 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 interiors of the Sorbonne University were shot in Poland.

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.

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.

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 flamboyant red hair, the director in me immediately fell in love.

WALDEMAR POKROMSKI

KAROLINA GRUSZKA

Make-up artist

Actress (Marie Curie)

The film required appropriate documentation and sources in order to be able to present a true picture of her times. We found a lot of documents about our protagonist 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.

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 fascinated 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 conventions. The uncompromising attitude she displayed was a challenge for those around her. This concerned both her academic work and her emotional life.

PFM 2|2016

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 Pokromski 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 casting 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-productions, 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

17

I’m ready to do another film in Poland anytime. 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 themselves 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 talent, 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 modern 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.

Great minds think alike?

Piotr Głowacki (Albert Einstein, in the middle), Karolina Gruszka (Marie Curie)

18

PFM 2|2016

TALENTS

PFM 2|2016

19

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 Darek Kuźma

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 environment. This kind of work ethic that Paweł taught me got to be very close to my heart.”

ŁUKASZ ŻAL’S FILMS

FIRST ONE: The NeverEnding Story

by Wolfgang Petersen

FAVORITE ONE 8½ by

©© PRESS MATERIALS, © MARCIN SZPAKS

Federico Fellini

Wunderkind’s soft spot By the time Ida had gained momentum, Żal was a prominent cinematographer of short documentaries. That same year Aneta Kopacz’s Joanna, a poignant, 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 photographer, 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

ONE HE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO WORK ON Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese

awful lot, and learn how to look at things, at other people,” 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 difficult. 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), affirming 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 already 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 (Oscar-nominated The Cathedral) that redefined popular 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 realized 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 going back to my wife, my family, my friends. And then making another journey.”

20

TALENTS

PFM 2|2016

EYES AND EARS ON VAN GOGH

1

2

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

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.

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, Armand 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. Gachet 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 first The 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 Loving Vincent single camera movement tells the story of requires more work from a young man folthe painter in an animated film. Oliver and Kobiela kept lowing van Gogh’s that in mind, and always tracks

©© PROMO

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

PFM 2|2016

21

3

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 technique 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.

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 modifications 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

International picture The 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 international 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 executive producer, David Parfitt (Academy Award for Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love).

4

3 Live action sequences were shot in London (above)

4 Animated shots were created on canvas boards

LOVING VINCENT Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welshman (co-director) Screenplay: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Jacek Dehnel Cinematography: Łukasz Żal, Tristan Oliver Cast: Chris O’Dowd, Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan, Jerome Flynn. Producers: Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart.

Executive Producers: David Parfitt, Sean Bobbitt

22

PFM 2|2016

TALENTS

A LABIRYNTH OF LIES 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

Richard Krauz (Maciej Stuhr, above) is an offbeat antihero trying not to lose himself in the maze of postCommunist Czechoslovakia

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

Czechoslovakian Gotham City What 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 There are over 400 VFX shots in the film. made perfect sense in the novel, but which would We weren’t that all not have worked on the far off from The Felscreen. We wanted to be lowship of the Ring as real and entertaining as we could, while providing a few extra layers for

©© PROMO

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-TVdetective-movie-of-the-week, but a historical cinematic document dressed up as a cop thriller.”

PFM 2|2016

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 ADVERTISMENT

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, Every 15 minutes, and has distribution deals we have an action in the Czech Republic and scene to assure the Poland. The producers, who audience that yes, previously worked on another you are watching successful film, The Red Spider the right kind of (dir. Marcin Koszałka), are film, not a social about to embark on two more drama 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.

23

24

PFM 2|2016

TALENTS

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

“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 going to take many years to change that, but we’re trying to educate the industry about DI’s ever-growing possibilities,” adds Kamil Rutkowski, the company’s CTO. DI Factory seems to offer the full package, from advising on how to make the production cycle swift and efficient 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.”

“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 portfolio, 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-rocketed internationally over the years. “We’ve provided services 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-Mexican 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 technology, 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 expertise. It’s an art form, a diamond-cutting process of bringing out the full potential of a film.”

©© DI FACTIORY

THE ART OF THE DI FACTORY

26

PFM 2|2016

TALENTS

PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE The 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

The Polish Filmmakers Association has been embarking 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-

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 internationally. 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 Japan, 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 treated differently in Europe at the time. The European Commission supported culture much more than it does now. The Commission now takes the view that cultural 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 European 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

©© MARCIN KUŁAKOWSKI/PISF

Ola Salwa

PFM 2|2016

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 various 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.

ADVERTISMENT

27

What is the most important thing for the Polish Filmmakers 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 conference 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 other 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 various political parties and the Parliament take its opinion into account more than those of other organizations.

28

MONEY BANK

PFM 2|2016

HOW TO FIND MONEY IN POLAND Daugavpils

FINANCIAL SOURCES IN POLAND

OPERATIONAL ­PROGRAM FOR FILM PRODUCTION

Ternopil

Polish Film Institute

FOR PRODUCERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD Participation of Polish co-producer neccessary DEADLINES There are three application sessions in 2016:

SESSION 2 April 1–15, 2016;

SESSION 1 December 14, 2015 – January 7, 2016; REQUIREMENTS You have to hire at least one Polish Head of Department (DoP, Set Designer, Editor, Composer);

2016 SESSION 3 August 1–15, 2016.

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

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

MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS •• A separate selection commission for minority co-productions; •• Bilateral treaty not necessary, even for non-European projects.

MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS FINANCING For a Polish co-producer, the maximum subsidy is:

FINANCING For a Polish co-producer, the maximum subsidy is:

PLN

PLN

2 000 000

REQUIREMENTS FOR MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS

4 000 000 approx. EUR 932 000

POLISH BUDGET

MAX. PFI SUBSIDY

30%

50%

70%

E IR T T GE EN UD B

•• 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.

approx. EUR 470 000

50%

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.

PFM 2|2016

29

POLISH-GERMAN FILM FUND Funding institutions: Polish Film Institute, Mitteldeutsche ­ edienförderung (MDM) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg M

FOR PRODUCERS FROM Poland | Germany Applications 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.

REQUIREMENTS 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;

FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT the maximum subsidy is:

EUR 70

000

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

FOR CO-PRODUCTIONS the maximum subsidy is:

EUR

150 000

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

Annual budget approximately

EUR

300 000

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

REGIONAL FILM FUNDS In 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 FUND The Krakow International Film Fund is a new tool s­ upporting 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.

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

6 MAZOVIA FILM FUND www.mff.mazovia.pl 7 REGIONAL FILM FUND POZNAŃ www.poznanfilmcommission.pl 8 SILESIAN FILM FUND www.silesiafilm.com 9 POMERANIA FILM www.pomeraniafilm.pl

30

MONEY BANK

PFM 2|2016

POLAND IN NUMBERS TITLE

POLISH DISTRIBUTOR

COUNTRY

Listy do M. 2

KINO ŚWIAT

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

GROSS IN EUR

ADMISSIONS

SCREENS

RELEASE

Poland

12 270 964

2 874 420

328

11/13

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

435

12/26 (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

Admission over past years in mln

Breakdown of 2015 admissions by country of origin

Number of premieres in 2015

343

44.7 40.4 38.7

38.5

USA 28.8 mln

36.3

EU 6.3 mln

163

14.15% 64.64 %

18.65%

119

PL 8.3 mln

41 OTHER

2.56%

PL

Average ticket price 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Gross in mln

EUR

4.27 EUR

193.1

EU

USA

1 EUR = 4,26 PLN

Box Office 2015

PFM 2|2016

31

KEY FILM FESTIVALS in Poland in 2016

MAY

INDUSTRY EVENTS MAY/JUNE

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 Festival warsaw A selection of the best feature­‑length documentaries. www.docsag.pl Film Music Festival festival devoted to film music. www.fmf.fm JUNE/JULY kraków A

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

JUNE “Youth and Cinema” Debut Film Festival koszalin Festival for Polish young filmmakers with sidebar section with international debuts. www.mlodziifilm.pl PGNiG Transatlantyk Film Festival event that combines cinema and music. www.transatlantyk.org.pl

łódź An

Lubuskie Film Summer of films from the post­‑communist block. www.llf.pl

łagów A festival

JULY AUGUST

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

SEPTEMBER

Gdynia Film Festival most important festival of new feature films. www.festiwalgdynia.pl

gdynia Poland’s

Animator International Animated Film Festival poznań 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

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

Etiuda & Anima International Film Festival kraków Student films and animations are shown here. www.etudiaandanima.com Camerimage bydgoszcz This

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

DECEMBER Ale Kino! International Young Audience Film Festival poznań Films for young viewers. www.alekino.com

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

1

PKO OFF CAMERA PRO INDUSTRY Professional film industry platform focused on networking and match­-making Polish and international filmmakers. The core of the program are round tables, case studies and workshops.

2

Krakow Film Festival Industry Zone A series of events dedicated to documentary 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 consultation 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 Polish 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 Eastern Europe. CentEast also organizes workshops 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 Fun Look For Fund forum – one-on-one meetings provide opportunities of presenting projects to potential investors, co­‑producers and regional film funds. Accompanied 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.

32

PFM 2|2016

1

BATTLEFIELD: POLAND 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!

LOCATE&SHOOT

PFM 2|2016

33

2 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.

©© ADAM ŁAWNIK/EAST NEWS, © DREAMSTIME, © FOTOLIA

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

3

34

LOCATE&SHOOT

PFM 2|2016

4

5

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

6

6 Barracks in Wisłoujście Fortress.

Earliest fortifications date from the 15th century.

6

5

©© MICHAŁ ENGLERT

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

PFM 2|2016

35

7 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.

9 7 8 ©© WOJCIECH STRÓŻYK/REPORTER, © MONKPRESS/EAST NEWS, © FOTOLIA (3), © DREAMSTIME

8

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

available at www.filmcommissionpoland.pl

9

36

LOCATE&SHOOT

PFM 2|2016

1

“The team of 24 chose Łeba because of the beauty it presents on the screen. It complemented the romantic 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)

2

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

3

©© ALEKSANDRA ZIMNY IMAGES AND WORLDS, © PROMO

4

PFM 2|2016

37

It’s more than coastal landscapes!

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.

5

ADVERTISMENT

6

REMAINS OF THE DAY

PFM 2|2016

FINDING MR AND MS RIGHT Piotr Bartuszek

Casting director Piotr Bartuszek, who worked with Christopher Doyle and Michael Glawogger spills the bean 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 immediately. 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 Warsaw, 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 numerous suggestions, most people praised Aleksey Chadov, who was known for his role in The 9th Company. The actor said he was interested, we agreed on the pay and the schedules, but his brother, Andrey Aleksandrovich

Chadov, showed up instead. Although he was an excellent actor, he wasn’t Alexey. As everything had been arranged in haste, including the translation 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 surnames several times.

You come across even more amusing situations when you work in casting. 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 facial 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 delighted. We put the whole freak show troupe on the train from Warsaw to Prague, where some of the shooting was to take place. The conductor who came to our compartment to

check our tickets opened the door and fainted.

Every director has their own working 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 – especially 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 shooting Warsaw Dark. There were no standard 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 eventually 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. Fortunately, he liked my ideas.

I like my work, because it’s so diversified and unpredictable. Right now, I’m looking for Polish actors who speak Yiddish for a US drama documentary Who Will Write Our History. This tells the story of how the Secret Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto was established. 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?

©© PROMO, PRIVATE ARCHIVES

38

REMAINS OF THE DAY

PFM 2|2016

DAYDREAMING YOUTH Carmen Gray

Berlin-based film critic Carmen Gray takes a closer look at Poland’s new generation Few landmark buildings are more loaded with the brazen swagger of power or the resentment of the citizenry than Warsaw’s Palace of Culture, Stalin’s “gift” to the Polish people. The scars of this oppressive history still thematically dominate Polish cinema. This makes the opening of Michał Marczak’s All These Sleepless Nights all the more curious. Through an apartment window, 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 inescapability 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

(Krzysztof Bagiński) and Michał (Michał Huszcza) through a tumult of Warsaw locations – a fever-drift haze through a year of parties. Time and memory take hold with a quiet melancholy and fragility (they’re both struggling to get over breakups), but with an ecstatic pulse, mundane moments flare into sudden beauty and heightened experience. It’s hard to imagine this film being made by anyone other than Marczak. It won him the Best Director Award in the Sundance World Documentary Competition. This is not surprising. This is naturalism that straddles the boundary of fiction, and it carries a real charge. This talent for immersive filmmaking, which achieves a disarmingly 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 communist 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 Demon (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

the Holocaust. Its dispensing with the Christian framework, common to films such as Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida, in the telling of its tale, is significant, 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 vanguard. His previous film, Floating Skyscrapers, was boundary-pushing in its portrayal of a burgeoning and intense gay romance amid pervasive homophobia. His confrontational explorations 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 Wasilewski’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 conclusions be drawn about films as singular as these? If anything, it’s that whatever the shadows cast by regressive forces, young Polish filmmakers are daring and innovative enough to shine a defiant light.

©© PROMO, PRIVATE ARCHIVES

40