email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

FUNDING Poland

Smarzowski receives support from the Polish Film Institute

by 

- The committee of experts at the Polish Film Institute has announced the first recipients of its financial assistance for 2014, starting with Nienawiść by Wojciech Smarzowski

Smarzowski receives support from the Polish Film Institute
Wojciech Smarzowski

Wojciech Smarzowski has become the top director in Poland. He made the biggest Polish success of 2013, even though only three titles, Polish or otherwise, passed the one-million-viewers mark: Smarzowski’s Traffic Department [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojtek Smarzowski
film profile
]
(1.02 million), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (1.2 million) and Frozen (1.05 million). The film he subsequently directed, The Mighty Angel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, which came out on 14 January 2014, has already drawn in 753,400 cinemagoers.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

As Smarzowski says in his interviews, he anticipates having to wait a little longer before beginning production on Nienawiść (Hatred), given the demanding theme that the film deals with and the considerable amount of funding that needs to be raised (€3.5 million) in comparison with the average Polish film. However, a proportion of the movie’s budget has already been taken care of: the Polish Film Institute has invested 4 million zlotys (€960,000) in it. The film will therefore perhaps begin production earlier than expected. 

Smarzowski is known for his uncompromising and sober approach to unmasking the darkest sides of human nature. This time, he will turn to a historical topic: the massacre of Poles in Volhynia, an episode of ethnic cleansing perpetrated against these people during the Second World War by Ukrainian nationalists. To a lesser extent, the victims were also Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Armenians, Czechs and people of other origins who were living in Volhynia (historians estimate that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed between 50,000 and 60,000 people). Smarzowski wrote the screenplay in two months, basing his work on short stories by Stanislaw Srokowski and the recollections of witnesses, and having conducted almost two years of research. The film will be produced by Film IT. 

Although €11.7 million worth of aid was requested during this first session to award assistance for 2014, the experts agreed to support six titles to the tune of €3.7 million; these include two debut titles and a second film. The other recipients are Janusz Majewski, Jacek Bromski, Denijal Hasanović, Bartosz Prokopowicz and Arkadiusz Jakubik.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy