15/05/2006

The Polish Film Institute – officially founded on June 30, 2005 – has just allocated the first instalments of funding for development and production. From the 39 fiction projects that applied for support, only 14 features were granted funding, including four first films and three European co-productions.

The highest amount granted by the Institute for co-production funding, 2.4m zlotys (€600,000), went to Nightwatching – the new film by Peter Greenaway (see news ), a co-production between the Netherlands, the UK, France and Poland (Yeti Films). The film by the UK director will feature some scenes from the life of Rembrandt, most of which will be shot in Wrocław, Poland.

Experts at the Polish Film Institute also appreciated Volker Schlöndorff’s Heldin, which grossed 300,000 zlotys (€79,000) at the box-office. According to the experts, this film about Anna Walentynowicz (founder of the Polish trade union Solidarność and heroine of the 1980 strikes in the Gdańsk shipyards) is very important for Poles and, given the director’s fame, is also expected to be a hit with international audiences.

The third co-production to be granted funding is Teach, by young Polish/Slovenian director Hanna Wojcik-Slak. The film, which deals with the destiny of a mother and her son who are victims of the Bosnian war, is aimed at a young audience and received 800,000 zlotys (€210,500) in funding.

Lastly, special funding of 6m zlotys (€1.5m) was granted to Post mortem by Andrzej Wajda, a film about the 1940 Katyn massacres (see news ) that, according to experts at the Institute, "will perhaps be one of the most important post-Communist films".

(Translated from French)