Polish audiences like nothing more than watching a good biopic. Stories based on the lives of famous doctors, actors, priests or researchers attract throngs of viewers – just look at films like Johnny, Gods [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] and The Art of Loving [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film], which all flew high at the local box office.

The latter two titles were produced by Warsaw-based Watchout Studio, which is now finishing work on a new biopic: Kulej (working title). The story follows light-welterweight boxer Jerzy Kulej, who won gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 and in Mexico in 1968. Indeed, the picture will focus on that part of his life. Tomasz Włosok, who recently starred in Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], plays the lead, and he is joined by Michalina Olszańska (Homeland, The Lure [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Agnieszka Smoczyńska
fiche film]) as Kulej’s wife Helena, Andrzej Chyra (The Last Men, Frost [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Sharunas Bartas
fiche film]) as his trainer and a fellow boxer, Feliks Stamma, and Tomasz Kot (Joika, Cold War [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
Q&A : Pawel Pawlikowski
fiche film]) as the head of the sports club.

Xavery Żuławski, who co-penned the script with Rafał Lipski, is helming the movie. His directorial credits include Bird Talk [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Xawery Żuławski
fiche film], a delightfully eccentric film à clef written by his late father Andrzej Żuławski, and the zombie-horror It Came From the Water, which was also produced by Watchout Studio.

“Making a film about Jerzy Kulej is a dream come true for me, as it entails working on a production set in the 1960s,” said Żuławski in a press release. “It was then, in the grey and sad times of this bygone era, when colourful and passionate people were an important part of society. Among them were Jerzy and Helena Kulej, representing big love, the world of boxing, rock’n’roll, two Olympic Games, and the fascinating flirtation between the world of sport and politics, and the underworld of that time.”

Kulej is being produced by Krzysztof Terej through Watchout Studios. Next Film is the Polish distributor of the film, and the local theatrical release is scheduled for October 2024.