31-03-2008

Days of Polish Film inaugurated in Ukraine

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    A memorandum on cooperation signed in March between Poland and Ukraine is yielding swift results. A series of Polish films representative of several generations of filmmakers is being screened this month in Lviv, Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov.

    The films are directed by such personalities as Andrzej Wajda (Katyń), Jan Jakub Kolski (Jasminum) and Andrzej Jakimowski (Tricks). Also featured will be films by Jacek Bromski (In God's Garden) and Jerzy Stuhr (Twist of Fate).

    All of the films were co-financed by the Polish Film Institute..

    Wajda's Katyń, an Academy Aware nominee, will be screened in Kiev on April 17, with Ukrainian President Victor Juschenko in attendance. It tells the story of the massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers in the Soviet Union in 1940. Katynń recently was screened in Moscow to a packed house of dignitaries, but it has yet to find a distributor in Russia.

    Meanwhile another famous Polish director, Krzysztof Zanussi, winds up shooting in Poland late this week on A Heart in Your Hand, the first Polish-Ukrainian production after the signing of the memorandum. The production then moves to Ukraine where shooting will last through April 14. The film is also being cofinanced by the Polish Film Institute, which signed the cooperation agreement.