15/12/2006

After Lost Souls (2000), well-known Polish DoP and two-time Oscar winner Janusz Kamiński (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) has started filming on his second feature, Hania.

Hania is the story of a couple who decide to welcome a boy, Kacper, from an orphanage for Christmas in order to break their routine. This decision and then the boy’s presence begin to influence their attitudes: their relationship changes drastically and they no longer see their life in the same way.

The film was scripted by Andrzej Gołda, who won at the Hartley-Merrill Polish Scriptwriting Competition. “If we were looking for a source of inspiration for this story, it would be Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince without a doubt,” said the scriptwriter.

"Hania is a film for the whole family, simple but thought-provoking. It is full of hope, something quite rare in contemporary Polish cinema, which is dominated by a pessimistic view of reality," Grzegorz Hajdarowicz of Gremi Film Production told Cineuropa.

The script was also one of the main factors that persuaded Kamiński to make the film in Poland with a local crew. For the cast he chose Agnieszka Grochowska (Warsaw by Dariusz Gajewski), Łukasz Simlat (Extras by Michał Kwieciński) and the young Maciek Stolarczyk.

Cinematography will be in the hands of Janusz Kamiński and Arek Tomiak while the score is being composed by another Pole well-known in Hollywood, Jan A. P. Kaczmarek.

The film is co-produced by Studio Filmowe ZEBRA’s Juliusz Machulski (the director behind such cult comedies as Vabank, Seksmisja, Kingsajz, Deja vu and Kiler), Gremi Film Production (a new company involved in the production of Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Oto Film Studio’s Jacek Kulczycki.

With an €800,000 budget, €316,000 of which came from the Polish Film Institute (PISF), the production will be shooting in and around Warsaw until the end of January 2007. Theatrical release is planned for October 2007.

(Translated from French)