{mosimage}Freedom Is Within Us.Popiełuszko tells the story of Jerzy Popiełuszko, a heroic priest associated with the Solidarity movement, who was murdered by the Security Service of the People's Republic of Poland. The movie presents his life starting from his childhood spent on a Polish province, through the formation of his religious calling in the army and the process of becoming a legend during the martial law period till his brutal murder and funeral, which drew over half million people.

The movie was shot between August 2007 and April 2008 in the authentic locations of the events presented in the script: Warsaw, Zakopane and Gdańsk. The preparatory stage of this production lasted over 5 years. The creators of the picture gathered a broad documentation and were in direct contact with several witnesses of the priest's life. Rafał Wieczyński, the director and author of the script, consulted Popiełuszko's family and friends as well as historians and the representatives of the Catholic Church engaged in the priest's beatification process. The main role is played by Adam Woronowicz. The director managed to introduce an all star cast to his project including Maja Komorowska, Joanna Szczepkowska, Danuta Stenka, Kazimierz Kaczor, Radosław Pazura, Jan Englert and Władysław Kowalski. The former Polish primate Józef Glemp also made a guest appearance in the picture.

{mosimage}Freedom Is Within Us.Popiełuszko is one of the biggest Polish productions of the last couple of years with over 7,000 cast members and extras. It was produced by Focus Producers (www.popieluszko.pl) with a major budget of 12 million PLN in co-production with IF MAX-FILM SA (www.maxfilm.com.pl). The movie was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute ( www.pisf.pl) with 3.9 million PLN for production. The title was also financed by the Municipal Office of the Masovia Province.

The title premiered on February 16 in the National Theater in Warsaw and opened in Polish cinemas on February 17, 2009. The movie was a big success, targeted especially to school audiences as part of their history lessons. The movie's Polish distributor Kino Świat (www.kinoswiat.pl) told FNE that the title was seen by over 1.3 million viewers and made over 17.3 million PLN.

Official website of the film :http://www.popieluszko.pl

{mosimage}Credits

Director - Rafał Wieczyński
Screenwriter - Rafał Wieczyński
Cinematographer - Grzegorz Kędzierski
Set Design - Andrzej Kowalczyk
Costumes - Alicja Hornostaj
Music composer - Paweł Sydor
Producer - Julita Świercz-Wieczyńska
Production company - Focus Producers
Co-production - IF Max-Film
Co-financing - Polish Film Institute, Municipal Office of the Masovian Province
Distributor - Kino Świat

Cast

Adam Woronowicz
Maja Komorowska
Joanna Szczepkowska
Danuta Stenka
Kazimierz Kaczor
Radosław Pazura
Jan Englert
Władysław Kowalski
and others

{mosimage}Production contact:

Focus Producers

ul. Puławska 61, 02-595 Warszawa
tel.: 22 845 49 94, 501 548 415
fax: 22 845 49 94
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www: http://www.popieluszko.pl