„The Peasants” at Deadline Contenders Film L.A – watch the exclusive interview
Hugh Welchman attended the special event – Deadline Contenders Film on 18th of November in Los Angeles to talk about making of his hit movie “The Peasants”. The film, co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, will represent Poland as a contender for the Best International Feature Film category. The film’s music has also been submitted to the Best Original Score category by the composer – Łukasz “L.U.C” Rostkowski. Learn what the co-director had to say about making the film during the times of COVID and war.
Hugh Welchman is the co-author and co-director of the hit film “The Peasants”, based on the Nobel-winning book by Wladyslaw Reymont, published back in the beginning of 20th Century. With his wife, DK Welchman (nee Dorota Kobiela), he already gave the viewers a visual masterpiece in Oscar-nominated “Loving Vincent”. With “The Peasants” the whole team took the job a step further, expanding on the choreography, filming locations and the amount of actors and extras. The end result is spellbinding and intriguing and critics are raving about the way the story taking place over a century ago has found its contemporary footing.
Hugh Welchman on making of “The Peasants”
The co-director of the film, Hugh Welchman, has attended the Deadline Contenders Film L.A event to talk about making of the film and the joys and obstacles of the prolonged process.
“For me, it’s an amazing book about the human condition and human relationships. Not only could it have been a village in 19th century Britain, but it could be a village 21st century Britain. I thought it was a universal story” – said Hugh Welchman to film reporter and moderator, Matt Grobar during the event.
In the later part of the interview the director talks in detail about the hardships of making the film during COVID-19 pandemic and then having post-production issues due to the beginning of Russian invasion on Ukraine.
“We can’t do stuff remotely. We have people sitting in front of easels with a whole lighting setup in each of the painting animation workstations.”
The Peasants recruited painters from Poland, Serbia, Lithuania and Ukraine and faced 20 percent inflation over the years of production. The Ukraine war cut much of the film’s staff in half.
“We bought tickets for all the women, because the men were all of military age so they couldn’t leave,” he said. “All the women came to the border. They were with their elderly mothers or their children. We had to find them places to live, places for their kids to go to school” – as we read on the official website of Deadline Contenders Film LA.
You can watch the whole interview on the dedicated Deadline Contenders Film Los Angeles website.
“The Peasants” – strong contender
The Polish film has been selected as the official contender for the Best International Film category. Worth adding is the fact that the film’s score has also been submitted to the Best Score category by the composer – Łukasz “L.U.C” Rostkowski.
The film has already received a lot of positive feedback and an array of awards and nominations. It’s been a hit at Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. It has received an Audience Award, alongside the Special Jury award. Main actress, Kamila Urzędowska, who portrays Jagna, has received two awards for her breakthrough performance – Crystal Star Elle and Chopard Loves Cinema – Chopard & W. Kruk Awards during the same event. Polish film has been screened around the world – most notably during Special Presentation segment of Toronto International Film Festival, at BFI London Film Festival, Busan Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival and Tallin Black Nights Film Festival.
“The Peasants”’ score, composed by Łukasz “L.U.C” Rostkowski has garnered more than 4 millions plays on Spotify alone, and is available on most streaming music sites.