The historical film takes place in Lemberg in the time of World War 2, and it perfectly illustrates Holland’s artistic virtues: in perfect harmony with her actors of four different nations, talking four different languages, she produced a European piece of work - which is able to reach the European audience.
 
Agnieszka Holland was born in Warsaw, Poland, but she didn’t know borders right from the beginning of her career. She studied directing in Prague, and started practicing this profession under the leadership of Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi. She wrote scripts for Wajda, e.g. Danton, or Eine Liebe in Deutschland. After her first success with Aktorzy prowincjonalni (Provincial Actors) and the announcement of the state of emergency in Poland, she moved to Paris in 1981. She was first nominated for the Academy Award in 1986 for her film Bittere Ernte (Angry Harvest), starring Armin Mueller-Stahl; for the second time in 1992 for Europa, Europa (1990), which won the Golden Globe for the best foreign language film. She produced her first American movie, The Secret Garden in 1993, to satisfy Francis Ford Coppola’s request. She charged the then almost unknown Leonardo DiCaprio with his first major role in 1995 to play poet Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. In the meanwhile she worked on Kieslowski’s Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colours: Blue) as its co-writer and screened the novel Washington Square by Henry James with the starring of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney. She shot Copying Beethoven in Hungary in 2006 with Ed Harris.