21/04/2016 - The PISF has selected Gareth Jones by Agnieszka Holland and Orzel. Ostatni patrol by Jacek Blawut, among other titles

14 feature-length fiction films, six of which are co-productions (including four minority ones), have been chosen during the PISF’s (Polish Film Institute’s) first session of 2016 – the body will be supporting them with a total of more than €4.6 million.

Two productions have received the highest amount (€697,600), and one of these is Gareth Jones by renowned director Agnieszka Holland, which will have an estimated budget of €5.7 million. The film will revolve around the figure of British journalist Gareth Jones (born in 1905 and killed in Mongolia in 1935), who was one of the very few foreign people who bore witness, with his own eyes, to “the great famine” in Ukraine that killed between 2.6 and 5 million people, according to historians. Jones described the situation in a press release in 1933, thus lifting the lid on the consequences of the totalitarian regime and grabbing the attention of the Western world.

€697,600 will also go to Orzel. Ostatni patrol (lit. “The Eagle. The Last Patrol”) by Jacek Blawut (with a budget of €1.8), which will depict the tragic fate of the Polish crew of the Orzel, a submarine that went missing in the North Sea in 1940.

A third historical film will benefit from a substantial amount of support, to the tune of €500,000: Dywizjon 303 (Squadron 303) by Lukasz Palkowski. The same sum has also been allocated to Sztuka kochania (Ars Amandi) by Maria Sadowska, which will paint a portrait of Halina Widlocka (a gynaecologist and the author of the first sexology manual in Poland), and to Werewolf [+see also:
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The PISF will also be backing the upcoming films by Andrzej Jakimowski, Karolina Bregula and Mariko Saga, in addition to the feature debut by Pawel Ferdek.

As for co-productions, the Polish Film Institute has selected titles by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurosson, Greg Zglinski, Diego Lerman, Janis Nords, Etienne Kallos, Rafael Lewandowski, Rouzie Hassanova and Aleksiej German Jr.

(Translated from French)