The film spans from the spring of 1939 to summer of 1945. It takes place in a village inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews in the former eastern borderlands of pre-war Poland (today Ukraine). Smarzowski told FNE that the drama about the pogroms in Volhynia "avoids black-and-white stereotypes and recreates a lost world of multicultural eastern borderlands of pre-war Poland".
The film is produced by Film It with a budget of 4 m EUR. The project received 16 m PLN from the Polish Film Institute. The main shoot for the film spanned the whole of 2015, until the producer ran out of funds to complete some crucial, big scenes. The director and producer created a crowdfunding campaign for 2.5 m PLN and collected 600.000 PLN. In May 2016, Polish public broadcaster TVP announced that it would support the production with 1 m PLN, which allowed for the production to be completed.
The premiere of Volhynia is planned for 7 October 2016.
Production information:
Film it
32 Różana Street
02-569 Warsaw, Poland
phone. +48 22 852 23 24
fax. +48 22 852 15 16
www.filmit.com.pl
Crew:
Directed by Wojtek Smarzowski
Producer: Dariusz Pietrykowski
Production company: Film it
Co-producer: TVP
Financing: Polish Film Institute
Cast:
Michalina Łabacz
Jacek Braciak
Arkadiusz Jakubik
and others
