Co-Financing for Weir Project

September 3 brings the launch of the 37th Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, USA. This year’s Telluride lineup includes 24 new features, 13 documentaries, and 25 short films. This non-competitive festival focuses on presenting the latest achievements of world cinema.

This year’s edition will include the first general audience screening of Peter Weir’s latest feature, The Way Back. This film was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

Peter Weir is the Australian-born director of such films as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Dead Poets Society (1989), Witness (1985), The Truman Show (1998), and Fearless (1993).

His latest feature The Way Back is based on a book by a Polish author, Sławomir Rawicz. “The Long Walk”, written by Rawicz, was first published in English in 1956 (its Polish translation was not published until after 1989). In the film based on Rawicz’s memoirs, Peter Weir tells the story of a group of prisoners who manage to flee from a Soviet labour camp. After a long and exhausting journey, they finally make it to India, having covered approximately 8,000 km on foot.

Starring in The Way Back are Ed Harris (Golden Globe winner for his role in Weir’s The Truman Show and Academy Award nominee for his roles in The Hours, Pollock, and Apollo 13), Colin Farrell (star of Ondine and Alexander), and Romanian actor Dragos Bucur (this year’s Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival, along with Agata Buzek). The Way Back will screen in the Telluride festival’s “Show” section, along with the latest features by Mike Leigh, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Frears, and Errol Morris.

The Way Back will be released in Polish cinemas in the first half of 2011.

At the Telluride film festival, Peter Weir will also receive the Silver Medallion Award for lifetime achievement and contribution to world cinema. This recognition is awarded annually since the first edition of the festival.

The festival’s special guest will be writer Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient. The festival team organized a special section for films selected by the acclaimed writer.

The 37th Telluride Film Festival runs from September 3 to September 6.

Further details about this event are available atwww.telluridefilmfestival.org and www.mubi.com.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun