Popiełuszko returns to cinemas
It is not the first time that the life of Jerzy Popiełuszko, the charismatic chaplain of the Polish Solidarity movement assassinated in 1984 by the Communist political police (SB), has inspired a Polish director. After Agnieszka Holland’s To Kill a Priest (1988), now it’s the turn of Rafał Wieczyński to make a film about the famous priest.
Popieluszko became famous in Poland through his sermons, which brought together thousands of followers in his parish church of Saint-Stanislas in Warsaw, after General Wojciech Jaruzelski called a state of siege in 1981.
Kidnapped by three SB officers on October 19, 1984, before being tortured to death and thrown into the waters of the Vistula, today father Popiełuszko is one of the icons in the fight for democracy and the opposition of the Catholic Church to a totalitarian regime.
Directed and written by Wieczyński, the film will depict the life of the priest (played by Adam Woronowicz) from his childhood in rural Poland to the birth of his vocation during his military service and recounts the period during which he becomes the spiritual guide of his generation, embodying the virtues of freedom and heroic courage. The script is based on eyewitness accounts and documents.
The film gives an outline of Polish history, as the director aims to depict the priest’s life against a backdrop of important historical events of the time: the strikes of August 1980 and protest marches against the government. In order to make the film as authentic as possible, Wieczyński will recruit people present at these events.
Shooting, which began in recent days, will take place in various Polish cities, notably in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Krakow, Katowice and Zakopane.
The €3m budget film is being produced by Focus Producers (in co-production with IF MAX-FILM and Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych). Alongside private sponsors, the feature is being financed by the PISF (Polish Film Institute) and the Masovie regional government.
The title is slated for release in autumn 2008.
(Translated from French)
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