15/06/2006

Dorota Kedzierzawska, director of I Am (Special Jury Prize in Kinderfilmfest at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival), has chosen the surroundings of Warsaw as the location for her new film, Pora umierać (lit. “It Is Time To Die”).

Some time ago, the director declared, "When I finish a film, I promise myself the next one will be about grown-ups – and nothing ever becomes of it." Kedzierzawska has finally kept her promise and this time around has made a film about an old and lonely woman.

Following success on the international festival circuit with her recent films (Diabły Diabły, Nic), Kedzierzawska wrote Pora umierać for Polish actress Danuta Szaflarska, a national film star since 1946 who has starred in films by Konwicki, Wajda, Morgenstern and Bajon. The film recounts the true story of an old woman who rediscovers her passion for life through the ironic distance she has with reality and her sense of humour.

The film’s cinematographer is Arthur Reinhart (Kevin Reynolds’s Tristan and Isolde), who has been DoP on all of Kedzierzawska’s most important films. Starring alongside the leading actress are Krzysztof Globisz (Pornografia by Jan Jakub Kolski), Małgorzata Rożnatowska (Cześć Tereska by Robert Glinski), Agnieszka Podsiadlik (I Am) and – as is usual with the director – a large number of amateur actors.

Produced by Kid Film and Tandem Taren-To, with backing from the Polish Film Institute, the film is scheduled for a Spring 2007 release.

(Translated from French)