The missing tank of Operation Danube
The August 1968 intervention of Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia served as the departure point for Operacja Dunaj (Operation Danube), the debut feature currently being filmed under the helm of theatre director Jacek Glomb who is making his cinema debut.
Co-written by Robert Urbanski and Jacek Kondracki, the story is largely based on fiction but it also takes inspiration from a real-life event. In the night of August 20-21 1968, while the armed forces of five countries of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia, a Polish tank disappeared with its crew. This real-life disappearance served as a pretext for a story not having a merely historical basis, but which also dares to inject a decent dose of comedy. In Jacek Glomb’s film, the Polish tank ends up by “parking” in a Czech inn.
"We don’t want to make a film for experts and critics, but for a wider public, a popular film, to make people laugh and cry," explains the director. "Our characters are not military heroes. Above all they are human beings who are experiencing a sort of transformation, who lose as soldiers what they earn as individuals."
A Czech-Polish co-production via Monolith Film and Bonton, the cast of Operation Danube stars both Polish (notably Maciej Stuhr, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Tomasz Kot) and Czech actors (Ewa Holubova, Boleslav Polivka and Jaroslav Dusek). Well-known Czech director Jiri Menzel also stars, as well as acting as Glomb’s artistic director.
Operation Danube is being filmed in the Czech Republic and in the border region in the south of Poland. Cinematographic direction is being handled by Jacek Petrycki. The €2m budget title is set to premiere in Prague and Warsaw on August 21, marking the 41st anniversary of the invasion.
(Translated from French)
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