06-05-2012

FNE at Gdynia Film Festival: Secret

By FNE Staff

    {mosimage}GDYNIA: In his drama Secret, screening in competition at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival (7-12 May 2012, www.fpff.pl), Przemysław Wojcieszek creates another challenging and artistic independent film.

    The central character is Ksawery, a homosexual drag queen performer who decides to pay a visit to his grandfather living in the country accompanied by his friend and agent Karolina. The old man is a former resistance soldier who hides a painful secret of a murder that took place in his house during the Holocaust. Karolina, who is Jewish, is determined to confront him about the crime, while Ksawery is not sure if he wants to lose the bond with he only relative he ever felt close to.

    {mosimage}"Last year's Berlinale was a life changing experience. I understood how powerful cinema still is, how rapidly it is evolving and where I belong. That's how Secret was born: somewhere between my love of punk DIY ethics and Fassbinder's no holds barred relentless film-making. With a little help from a new breed of cheap, hand held HD cameras , based on a script rejected by virtually all film related institutions in Poland, prepared by an anarchic collective of twelve, shot within three weeks, with no budget at all, with a travel case of old, mostly broken photo lens, this was the exercise in sovereignty and artistic independence. After months of hopeless struggle, cinema forced me to live again. Opened, edgy, ambiguous, unpredictable, divisive, erratic. Free of any production restraints. Pleasing neither a mass audience nor a festival hipster. Breathlessly looking for a new audience. More an experimental novel, than a conventional film," Wojcieszek told FNE.

    {mosimage}Wojcieszek is a leading Polish independent director. A self-taught filmmaker, he directed several low budget feature films including Kill'em All (Rebellion Films,www.canalpluscyfrowy.pl), Louder Than Bombs (www.skorpion-art.polandtrade.pl) and A Perfect Afternoon (www.skorpion-art.polandtrade.pl). In 2011 he directed his most highly praised feature, Made In Poland (www.gruppa.pl), awarded the Best Male Supporting Role for Janusz Chabior during the 36th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (www.fpff.pl). The director of photography for Secret is Jakub Kijowski, a young Polish filmmaker who worked with Wojcieszek on Made in Poland.

    Secret was shot in September 2011 on location in Wrocław. The film is produced by Dynamo Karuzela Katarzyna Majewska Wrocław in co-production with New Horizons Association (www.nowehoryzonty.pl), Gruppa Rafał Widajewicz (www.gruppa.pl). Secret was presented during the 62. IFF in Berlin (www.berlinale.de) as part of the Forum section. The film is distributed by New Horizons Association, and world sales are managed by the producer Dynamo Karuzela - Katarzyna Majewska.

    {mosimage}Crew:
    Director - Przemysław Wojcieszek
    Screenwriter - Przemysław Wojcieszek
    Director of photography - Kuba Kijowski
    Music - Krzysztof Prętkiewicz
    Production designer - Milena Czarnik
    Sound - Artur Kuczkowski
    Editing - Daniel Zioła
    Costume designer - Magdalena Machajska
    Make-up - Alina Janerka
    Production manager - Rafał Widajewicz
    Production company - Dynamo Karuzela - Katarzyna Majewska
    Producer: Katarzyna Majewska
    Co-produced by - Gruppa Rafał Widajewicz, New Horizons Association
    Co-financed by - Polish Film Institute
    Distribution - New Horizons Association
    World sales - Dynamo Karuzela - Katarzyna Majewska

    Cast:
    Tomasz Tyndyk
    Agnieszka Podsiadlik
    Marek Kępiński

    Production information:

    Dynamo Karuzela, Podchorążych 3/14
    53-320 Wrocław
    Poland
    (+48) 604 48 80 54
    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
    www.dynamokaruzela.pl