SHOOTING COMMENCES ON "POKOT"

Filming has commenced on Agnieszka Holland’s latest feature Pokot. This international co-production is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

“Our film might just as well be called ‘No Film for Old Women,'” said Agnieszka Holland, who has just started shooting her latest feature in Lower Silesia.

A Film Based on the Works of Olga Tokarczuk

The screenplay for Pokot is based on Olga Tokarczuk’s best-selling novel “Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych,” first published in 2009 by Wydawnictwo Literackie. According to the filmmakers, it will be a crime story with a Coen brothers-like sense of irony and set in a surreal world that might be reminiscent of the recent films of Wes Anderson.

Agnieszka Holland About Her Latest Project:

According to director Agnieszka Holland, “this film is meant to provoke; sometimes we’ll go all out, no holds barred. There will be no moralizing or simple conclusions. I would also like to avoid the political context that is clearly visible in the book being completely obvious on screen. We could always think it was all born in the head of our protagonist, who is suffering from an allergy to light— I see this character as a mix of philosopher Simone Weil, J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello, Stanisława Przybyszewska, the Madwoman of Chaillot, and many of my contemporaries who are crazy about the environment or astrology, and remain young at heart despite the years and the extra weight, cultivating their belief in a better world that once made sense.

The main characters in this story will be unique, lively, original. I want them to be almost as important as the main protagonist; I want each of these women to carry her own secret and to cast doubt in our minds about their role in the committed crimes.”

International Co-Production Supported by the Polish Film Institute

Pokot is made as a Polish-German-Czech-Swedish co-production. The screenplay was written by Agnieszka Holland and Olga Tokarczuk. The film is lensed by Jolanta Dylewska and scored by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz. Production on the Polish side is handled by Studio Filmowe TOR, with funding from the European Union MEDIA Programme and the Polish-German Co-Development Fund for developing a feature film project. The film’s German producer is Heimatfilm, the Czech producer is Nutprodukce, with Chimney acting as producer on the Swedish side. Pokot has also received support from the Polish Film Institute.

Source: ifilm, SF TOR

Translated by Karolina Kołtun