04/09/2005

Life is hard for an idealist. An idealist such as Wiktor, Polish ambassador to Uruguay, ex musicologist and activist in the Solidarnosc movement, forced to face daily hypocrisy. Diplomatic plots, industrial espionage, false love betrayals are Persona non grata's main themes. A film directed by the Polish Krzysztof Zanussi, in competition in Venice (see the Film’s Making of ).

"Dispute is within me" says the main character Wiktor to his Russian Vice-Minister friend Oleg (played by the impetuous Nikita Mikhalkov), and his disappointment is that of everyone who believed in justice and equality. With his usual intellectual commitment, Zanussi shocks meticulously as he shows Wiktor's unrest, his clash with society and himself. Through his cinema, he expresses a moral anxiety that Is similar to that of Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Zanussi, from a family with Italian origins, is coming back to Venice where he was awarded a Golden Lion for Rok spokojnego slonca (A Year of the Quiet Sun) in 1984. Persona non grata is produced by Studio Filmowe TOR, the filmmaker's company, Mikhalkov 's Three T Production, Sintra owned by the Italian Rosanna Seregni and the Luce Institute, with the help of Telewizja Polska S.A. (Poland), Canal + and MiBAC. The film Is to be released in Poland on September, 9.

(Translated from Italian)