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10,000 attend Warsaw 44 premiere

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 31.07.2014 09:11
President Bronislaw Komorowski joined over 10,000 people at the National Stadium on Wednesday night for the premiere of an eagerly awaited film about the Warsaw Rising.

President
President Bronislaw Komorowski (L) with a veteran of the Warsaw Rising on Wednesday at the premiere of the Warsaw 44 film at the National Stadium. Photo: PAP/Rafal Guz

The premiere of Warsaw 44 (Miasto 44) began with a standing ovation for the dozens of veterans who were able to attend the event, just two days before the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the insurgency against Nazi Germany.

“I am happy and honoured to be able to stand before you, Warsaw insurgents,” declared 33-year-old director Jan Komasa, who had spent several years researching and writing the script for the movie.

“Let this film be our thank you from the entire crew of 3500 people who worked on the film.” he added.

Director
Director Jan Komasa speaks at the premiere of the Warsaw 44 film at the National Stadium. Photo: PAP/Rafal Guz

A specially constructed screen, apparently one of the largest ever used, was erected at the National Stadium for the event.

Komasa, whose 2011 debut Suicide Room (Sala Samobojcow) saw him tipped as the hottest rising talent in Polish cinema, picked a cast of unknowns for his epic about the 1944 insurgency.

The 63-day shoot mirrored the length of the doomed uprising itself, with Komasa's drama focusing on a tightly-knit group of young insurgents.

Special effects were fine-tuned by Richard Bain, who worked on such movies as Peter Jackson's King Kong, Christopher Nolan's Inception and Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Veterans give seal of approval

Several prominent veterans have already hailed Warsaw 44 as a breakthrough in terms of films about the insurgency.

Production company Kino Swiat released a series of interviews yesterday in which veterans commented on the film following a closed screening.

“This is the first film in which I felt that I had survived that – that it was my uprising,” said Anna Jakubowska.

“That was how the uprising looked,” echoed Wojciech Baranski.

“The production made a huge impression on me,” he added.

Meanwhile, Barbara Hollender, one of Poland's most noted film critics, has concluded that Komasa “took a risk and won.

“It is a gripping film,” she wrote in the Rzeczpospolita daily.

Warsaw 44 is in the same league as Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday. Komasa shows the initial rush of euphoria, and then how matters spun out of control."

However, writing for the Gazeta Wyborcza paper, critic Tadeusz Sobolewski argued that although Warsaw 44 is "excellent at times," it is only "an imitation of great cinema."

The
The premiere of the Warsaw 44 film at the National Stadium. Photo: PAP/Rafal Guz

Warsaw 44 will not go on general release in Poland until 19 September. The film has also qualified for the main competition of the Gdynia Film Festival (15-20 September), Poland's key annual showcase home-grown movies. (nh)

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