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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Poland

Shooting wraps for Polish boxing film The Champion by Maciej Barczewski

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- The story revolves around real-life boxing champion Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, who won a title in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp

Shooting wraps for Polish boxing film The Champion by Maciej Barczewski
Piotr Głowacki (centre) in Champion

Just days before the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, shooting for Maciej Barczewski’s The Champion [+see also:
trailer
interview: Maciej Barczewski
film profile
]
has ended on a film set in the former Nazi death camp. Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski arrived there as part of the first mass transportation of prisoners, on 14 June 1941. He was a soldier and a gym teacher, but first and foremost, he was a brilliant boxer who fought over 40 times during his imprisonment. Teddy defeated both German and Dutch champions and was deported from Auschwitz in 1943. He survived World War II and died in 1991.

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In 1962, Slovak director Peter Solan also made a film based on Teddy’s biography (The Boxer and Death). The 2020 film is the feature debut by Polish helmer Barczewski, who, in a press release, called Teddy “a symbol of the hope to triumph over Nazi terror”. Piotr Głowacki, one of the most popular Polish actors (best known from the Planet Single [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
trilogy), who lost about one-third of his body weight and underwent gruelling physical training for two years, plays the lead. “Boxing was a tool he used in order to survive,” stated Głowacki in the same press release. “We are telling a story of a passion that can save lives.”

Rafał Zawierucha (Once upon a Time… in Hollywood), Marcin Bosak (In Darkness [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Spoor
 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Holland
interview: Zofia Wichlacz
film profile
]
), Marian Dziędziel (Rose [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, These Daughters of Mine
 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and Marcin Czarnik (Son of Saul [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
film profile
]
, Sunset
 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: László Nemes
film profile
]
) also star. The Champion is being lensed by Witold Płóciennik, who won an award at the recent Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Emmy winner Ewa Skoczkowska is serving as the production designer, while Bartosz Chajdecki (Animals [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Greg Zglinski
film profile
]
, Gods [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) scored the film.

The Champion is being produced by Krzysztof Szpetmański and Leszek Strarzyński (of Iron Films), and co-produced by TVP (the Polish public broadcaster), Cavatina GW, Hardkop and Aeroplan Studios. The Polish distributor is Galapagos Films, and the theatrical release is scheduled for 16 October 2020.

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