24/08/2009

Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Lech Majewski
film profile], inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s painting The Procession to Calvary (1564), has just finished shooting in the director’s homeland, Katowice and Poland’s Upper Silesia.

The filmmaker’s previous features were presented and lauded at numerous international festivals. Wojaczek screened at Rotterdam, Berlin, Jerusalem, Rio de Janeiro, London, Mexico, Sao Paulo, New York, Montreal and Los Angeles, scooping over 20 awards, including Best European Independent Film at Barcelona in 2000. Moreover, in 2006, New York’s MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) organised a retrospective of Majewski’s films and video art.

This isn’t the first time the director has drawn inspiration from painting. His 2003 film The Garden of Earthly Delights (produced by London-based Metaphysics and Venice’s Mestiere Cinema) was based on Jérôme Bosch’s eponymous painting.

Set in the 16th century, The Mill and the Cross combines the Passion of Christ with the suffering of the Flemish, who at the time were under the political and religious domination of the Spanish. Co-written by Majewski and Michael Gibson (famous art critic and author of an eponymous book offering a detailed analysis of Bruegel’s painting), the film focuses on 12 of the 500 characters represented in the painting.

Rutger Hauer stars as Bruegel and Michel York as a banker and art collector, while Charlotte Rampling plays Mary, mother of Jesus. Lensed by the director and Adam Sikora, the film includes digital graphic and 3D effects.

Polish/Swedish project The Mill and the Cross is produced for €1m by Angelus Silesius in co-production with TVP, Silesia-Film, Supra Film, Arkana Studio, Odeon Film Studio, 24 Media, Piramida Film, Bokomotiv and Mastershot Studio, with backing from the Polish Film Institute.

(Translated from French)