29-09-2011

PRODUCTION: A Polish Pawiak Prison Documentary in Production

By Katarzyna Grynienko

    WARSAW: Director/writer/cinematographer Andrzej Kałuszko is completing filming on Z Pawiaka (From Pawiak) a documentary devoted to the story of Polish actress Alina Janowska who was imprisonment at the German Gestapo prison, Pawiak.

    Janowska, was collaborating with Polish Home Army during the German occupation in WWII and was arrested and brutally interrogated at Pawiak Prison. The film will be a recording of Janowska talking about her female cell mates, who were executed during her stay at the gestapo prison, and her later dramatic return when she worked with Andrzej Wajda on his film Samson, shot at the place where she was kept.

    The film is produced by Aura Film with the support of the Polish Museum Of Independence (www.muzeumniepodleglosci.art.pl) and the Museum Of Pawiak Prison. The producer told FNE that the production will be finished at the end of September, with a premiere planned for the first half of 2012. The film's merit advisor is the Museum Of Independence curator Joanna Gierczyńska.

    Kołuszko is a Polish documentary filmmaker highly praised for his debut short Solidarity Gdańsk. The revolt of the laborers (1997). Janowska is one of the most popular Polish actresses of the older generation, who started her career in 1946 in Forbidden Songs, a legendary Polish musical directed by Leonard Buczkowski. During her career Janowska worked with several outstanding Polish director including Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Passendorfer, Jerzy Gruza and Piotr Szulkin. Since 1998 she has been starring one of the most popular Polish daytime dramas The Złotopolski produced and aired by TVP (www.tvp.pl).