30/03/2007

Agnieszka Holland’s Prawdziwa historia Janosika i Uhocika (lit. “The Real Story of Janosik and Uhocik”) will resume lensing in Poland.

Production on the feature, which was postponed in 2003 due to a lack of funding, is now to go ahead after the director has received confirmation from the film’s Polish producer, Dariusz Jabłoński of Apple Film Production.

Holland’s film is an adaptation of the well-known story of the Robin Hood of the Slovak forest, Janosik, and his companion, the crook Uhocik. The director plans to present the legend’s characters in a new light and is co-directing the film with her daughter Kasia Adamik.

The film is scripted by young Slovak screenwriter-director Eva Borusovicova and cinematography is by Martin Strba. Czech actor Vaclav Jiracek plays the lead role and Polish actor Michał Żebrowski co-stars.

Almost half of the film was shot in Slovakia between October 2002 and March 2003. Due to the delay in production, the budget of the Czech/Slovak co-production (producer Rudolf Bierman), first estimated at $2.4m, was revised upwards by Jabłoński who – after having examined the scenes shot in Slovakia and judging them "of a very high technical and artistic quality" – decided to stop production. Lensing is to resume this July in the Tatras mountains, in Poland.

The Polish Film Institute (PISF) will back production and Polish public television broadcaster, TVP, is expected to co-produce.

(Translated from French)