Jan Hryniak’s successful début

by Fabien Lemercier

30/03/2005 - In the past few weeks, Polish cinema has finally made room in a top 10 in which American productions have been largely predominant since the beginning of the year. Indeed, The third one ("Trzeci"), Jan Hryniak’s first feature —inspired by Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water (1962)— has already earned 108,000 dollars in 10 days with 38 copies distributed by Kino. This result allows the film to stay in the ninth position in a box-office where European productions have been scarce in 2005. Amongst the other happy few, there was A Very Long Engagement by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (over 200,000 dollars for 47 copies), Les Daltons (60,000 dollars the first week for 35 copies distributed by Monolith), the Hungarian hit Kontroll [trailer] by Nimrod Antal (over 150,000 dollars for 17 copies distributed by Kino), Sea Inside [trailer] by Alejandro Amenabar (60,000 dollars in one week for 41 copies – SPI), Life is a Miracle by Emir Kusturica (nearly 200,000 dollars in two weeks for 22 copies - Gutek Film), and Wimbledon (195,000 dollars in three weeks). The figures remain way lower than the 4.1 million dollars Bridget Jones 2 [trailer] earned in the period end 2004-beginning 2005.

Jan Hryniak was born in 1969 in Warsaw. He belongs to a new generation of Polish film-makers in their thirties, but distinguishes himself from the general darkness by his optimistic approach. The third one, starring Marek Kondrat, Magdalena Cielecka, and Jacek Poniedzialek depicts the encounter of a couple of yuppies on a sailing week-end with a mysterious character, a surprinsingly cheerful person who questions all the patterns they used to believe in and changes their behaviours. This €550,000 first film is produced by Telewizja Polska, the Film Producers Agency, Figaro Film Production, Non Stop Film Service, and Studio Orka.

(Translated from French)